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The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTs reported a record 10.1 million job openings as of the last day of June, bettering an upwardly revised 9.5 million in May. The job openings rate rose to 6.5% and hires increased to 6.7M, up from 6.0M in May. Increases came in retail trade (+291,000), professional and business services (+123,000), state and local education (+94.000), and durable goods manufacturing (+36,000). Decreases came in arts, entertainment, and recreation (-12,000) and information (-8,000). Payrolls increased by 943,000 in July — the most in nearly a year. A record-low 1.3M workers were laid off or fired in June. The number of workers who left their jobs voluntarily came in at 3.9M in June, while the quits rate rose to 2.7%. A record 1.35M quits in retail, and accommodation and food industries represented 35% of all quits. The number of unemployed per job opening dropped to 0.9 in June, as compared to the peak of 5 unemployed per job opening in April 2020.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the consumer price index rose 0.5% in July; this follows a 0.9% increase in June. The index is up a seasonally adjusted 5.4% from a year ago. The indexes for shelter (+0.4%), food (+0.7%), energy (+1.6%), and new vehicles (+1.7%) all contributed to the increase. Used car and truck prices moderated in July with a modest 0.2% increase, after a 10.5% boost in June and a 7.3% increase in May. Shelter, which makes up a third of the overall CPI is up 2.8% year over year. The energy index is up some 23.8% over the past 12 months. Transportation services reported a decline of 1.1% and follows a 1.5% increase the previous month. Core CPI, which excludes the more volatile food and energy costs, increased 0.3% in July and is up 4.3% year over year; this follows a 4.5% increase for the 1-year period ending in June.
The Labor Department reported slightly lower initial jobless claims for the week ending August 7th. The seasonally adjusted initial claims came in at 375,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised level. The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility was 396,250. Michigan (-4,365) posted the largest decline in initial claims last week, followed by Florida (-3,337) and Georgia (-3,254). California (+6,347) posted the largest increase, followed by Virginia (+4,793) and Maryland (+2,395). Jobless applying for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) increased by 10,145, driven primarily by increases in Michigan (+6,042) and California (+4,125). The number of continuing unemployment claims made through regular state programs fell by 114,000 to 2.86M for the week ended July 31, this is the lowest reading for insured unemployment since March 2020. The four-week moving average for continuing claims fell by 99,750 to 3.10M, the lowest reading since March 2020’s 2.07M. Almost 12.05M people were receiving benefits under all programs for the week ending July 24th, down 919K from the previous week. A year ago, nearly 28.9M people were collecting benefits.
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