July JOLTS: 7.27M Job Openings Miss Signals Accelerating Labor Weakness
Job openings fell to 7.27 million in July. That is a stunning 930,000 below the Bloomberg consensus of 8.2 million.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the data at 14:00 UTC.
This is not a small miss or a statistical quirk. The labor market is deteriorating faster than analysts anticipated. The Federal Reserve will need to reassess its policy path.
Hires also disappointed at 5.05 million against expectations of 5.6 million. The headline miss alone would be notable.
A 930,000 shortfall on a baseline of roughly 8 million openings exceeds 11%. That kind of deviation happens rarely outside of recessions.
The hires number compounds the concern. At 5.05 million, hires missed expectations by 550,000…
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