A person rides a bicycle past a “Hiring” sign posted in front of a store in San Gabriel, California, on August 21, 2024.
Frederick J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images
The Labor Department reported Wednesday that job postings fell to their lowest level in three and a half years in July, another sign of a weak labor market.
The Labor Department’s closely watched job postings and labor turnover survey showed the number of available jobs fell to 7.67 million this month, down 237,000 from a downwardly revised figure in June and the lowest level since January 2021.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected a figure of 8.1 million.
The decline has pushed the job openings-to-capacity ratio down to less than 1.1, roughly half the 2:1 peak it reached in early 2022.
The data is likely to provide additional ammunition to Federal Reserve officials, who are widely expected to begin cutting rates at their next policy meeting on September 17-18. Federal Reserve officials are closely watching the JOLTS report as an indicator of labor market strength.
While job vacancies declined, layoffs increased by 202,000 to 1.76 million from June. Total layoffs increased by 336,000, bringing the layoff rate as a percentage of the labor force to 3.4%. However, hiring also increased by 273,000 from the month, up 3.5% or 0.2 percentage points from June.
The report comes two days ahead of the Labor Department’s important August nonfarm payrolls report, which is expected to show a gain of 161,000 and a slight decline in the unemployment rate to 4.2%.
