The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS reported 11.26 million job openings as of the last day of January, a decline from December’s revised record high reading. December was adjusted up significantly (+523,000) to 11.45 million openings. Job openings have now been reported above the 10 million level for 8 consecutive months.  Industries contributing to the increase include other services (+136,000) and in durable goods manufacturing (+85,000). Job openings decreased in accommodation and food services (-288,000); transportation, warehousing, and utilities (-132,000); and federal government (-60,000). Education and health services had the most openings, with roughly 2.13M, followed by professional and business with 2.07M, and trade transportation and utilities at 1.83M. The number of people who voluntarily left their jobs dropped 151,000 to 4.3 million. The number of people who quit their jobs for other opportunities made up 2.8% of the workforce in January, down slightly from December’s revised 3.0%. This marks eight consecutive months of more than 4 million people quitting their job. Quits decreased in retail trade (-69,000) and in information (-20,000) but increased in finance and insurance (+30,000). The number of hires was little changed at 6.5 million. The hires rate was unchanged at 4.3%. There have been 76.4M hires and 70.0M separations over the past 12 months, resulting in a net employment gain of 6.4M.

The US Energy Information Administration reported that US commercial crude oil stockpiles decreased by 1.9M barrels to 411.6M barrels (13% below the five-year average) for the week ending March 4, 2022. Crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.4M barrels per day, a decrease of 21K barrels per day as compared to the previous week’s average. Gasoline inventories decreased by 1.4M barrels (1% above the five-year average), distillate inventories decreased by 5.2M barrels (18% below the five-year average). Refineries operated at 89.3% of their operable capacity, as gasoline production increased an average of 9.6M barrels per day. Crude oil imports came in at 6.3M barrels per day, an increase of 600K barrels per day as compared to the previous week. Crude oil imports averaged about 6.2M barrels per day over the last four weeks, 10.0% more than the same period last year. Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 8.1M barrels last week.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the consumer price index rose 0.8% in February; this follows a 0.6% increase in January. The index’s year-on-year rate is up a seasonally adjusted 7.9%, the fastest annual pace since January 1983. Increases were broad-based with the indexes for gasoline (+6.6%), shelter (+0.5%), and food (+1.0%) primary contributors. The gasoline index accounted for almost a third of the monthly CPI increase, while the food index saw it largest monthly increase since April 2020. Core CPI, which excludes the more volatile food and energy costs increased a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in February, a slight decline over January’s 0.6%. The shelter index accounted for over 40% of the monthly increase, the 12-month annual pace of 4.7% is the fastest annual increase since May 1991. Also contributing were increases in recreation (+0.7%), household furnishings and operations (+0.6%), motor vehicle insurance (+1.2%), personal care (+1.2%), and airline fares (+5.2%). The annual rate of core CPI inflation is 6.4% and is the largest 12-month change since the period ending August 1982.