The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS reported 11.0 million job openings as of the last day of October, this is some 431,000 higher than September’s reading and the second-highest on record. Industries contributing to the increase include accommodation and food services (+254,000), nondurable goods manufacturing (+45,000), and educational services (+42,000). Job openings decreased in state and local government, excluding education (-115,000). The number of people who voluntarily left their jobs dropped 205,000 to 4.2M, from 4.4 million in September, this is still the third-highest reading dating back to 2000. The number of people who quit their jobs for other opportunities made up 2.8% of the workforce in October. Drops in transportation, warehousing, and utilities (-57,000), finance and insurance (-45,000); and arts, entertainment, and recreation (-33,000) all contributed to the decrease. The number of hires plateaued in October at 6.5M, with the hire rate unchanged at 4.4%. Hiring decreases in finance and insurance (-96,000) were offset by increases in educational services (+54,000) and in state and local government education (+37,000). There have been 73.8M hires and 68.1M separations over the past 12 months, resulting in a net employment gain of 5.7M.

The US Energy Information Administration reported that US commercial crude oil stockpiles increased by 0.2M barrels to 432.9M barrels (7% below the five-year average) for the week ending December 3rd. Crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.8M barrels per day, an increase of 153K barrels per day as compared to the previous week’s average. Gasoline inventories increased by 3.9M barrels (5% below the five-year average), distillate inventories increased by 2.7M barrels (7% above the five-year average). Refineries operated at 89.8% of their operable capacity, as gasoline production decreased an average of 9.6M barrels per day. Crude oil imports came in at 6.5M barrels per day, a decrease of 105K barrels per day as compared to the previous week. Crude oil imports averaged about 6.4M barrels per day over the last four weeks, 15.1% more than the same period last year. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 4.2M barrels last week.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the consumer price index rose 0.8% in November; this follows a 0.9% increase in October. The index’s year on year rate is up a seasonally adjusted 6.8%, the fastest annual pace since June 1982. Price increases were broad-based with the indexes for energy (+3.5%), used car and truck (+2.5%), new vehicles (+1.1%), food (+0.7%), and shelter (+0.5%) all contributing. The energy index is up some 33.3% over the past 12 months. The gasoline index rose 58.1% over the last year, fuel oil is also up 59.3% year over year.  The food index is up 6.1% over the past 12 months. Core CPI, which excludes the more volatile food and energy costs increased a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in November. The annual rate of Core CPI inflation is 4.9% and follows a 4.6% reading in October. November’s reading represents the fastest increase since June 2007.