The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS reported 10.9 million job openings as of the last day of December, this is some 150,000 higher than November’s reading. Job openings have been reported above the 10 million level for 7 consecutive months. Industries contributing to the increase include accommodation and food services (+133,000), information (+44,000), nondurable goods manufacturing (+31,000), and educational services (+31,000). Job openings decreased in finance and insurance (-89,000) and in wholesale trade (-48,000). The number of people who voluntarily left their jobs dropped 161,000 to 4.3 million, from 4.5 million in November. The number of people who quit their jobs for other opportunities made up 2.9% of the workforce in December, down slightly from 3.0% in November. Quits decreased in education and health services (-95,000), health care and social assistance (-89,000), and accommodation and food service (-64,000). Quits increased in retail trade (+52,000) and transportation (+32,000).  The number of hires fell by 333,000 to 6.3 million in December. The hiring rate dipped to 4.2% in December from 4.4% over the last four months. Hires decreased in professional and business services (-159,000). There have been 75.3M hires and 68.9M 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 1.0M barrels to 415.1M barrels (9% below the five-year average) for the week ending January 28th. Crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.2M barrels per day, a decrease of 248K barrels per day as compared to the previous week’s average. Gasoline inventories increased by 2.1M barrels (2% below the five-year average), distillate inventories decreased by 2.4M barrels (19% below the five-year average). Refineries operated at 86.7% of their operable capacity, as gasoline production decreased an average of 8.7M barrels per day. Crude oil imports came in at 7.1M barrels per day, an increase of 800K barrels per day as compared to the previous week. Crude oil imports averaged about 6.5M barrels per day over the last four weeks, 9.6% more than the same period last year. Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 5.8M barrels last week.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a stronger than expected 467,000 jobs were added in January. The jobs gains for both November and December were significantly revised with November increasing to 647,000 from 249,000 and December increasing to 510,000 from 199,000. The unemployment rate edged up to 4.0% from 3.9% in December, which was the lowest reading since February 2020. The monthly survey was taken in mid-January when omicron was starting to peak. Impacting the headline number was leisure and hospitality (+151K), down slightly from the (+163K) in December. Gains were also reported in professional and business services (+86K), retailers (+61K), and transportation and warehousing (+54K).  Average hourly earnings increased by 0.7% to $31.63 in January, year over year average hourly earnings have increased 5.7%. The number of unemployed was little changed at 6.5M, down from 23.1M in April 2020, but still well above February 2020’s 5.8M. The labor force participation rate or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one edged up to 62.2%, this is the highest level since March 2020, but still short of the pre-pandemic level of 63.3%.