US Job Openings Surge By 690,000 In August, Defy Expectations

The number of job vacancies posted by U.S. private businesses in August rebounded significantly, signaling the continued resilience of the U.S. labor market.

Job openings, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, surged by 690,000 compared to the previous month, reaching 9.6 million in August 2023. The outcome sharply surpassed the economist consensus of 8.8 million.

Although job openings currently sit below the one-year average of 10.1 million, this data marks the end of a three-month decline in job openings. Furthermore, the monthly increase in job openings is the most substantial since July 2021. These trends suggest that the labor market is adjusting well to the new interest-rate environment and remains robustly healthy.

Job openings saw notable increases in several sectors:

• Professional and business services experienced a significant uptick of 509,000 job openings.
• The finance and insurance sector saw a substantial increase of 96,000 job openings.
• State and local government education positions expanded by 76,000 openings.
• Nondurable goods manufacturing added 59,000 job openings.
• The federal government sector contributed 31,000 additional job openings.

Meanwhile, job resignations rose by 19,000 in August compared to the previous month, bringing the total to 3.638 million.

The job openings data serves as a preliminary glimpse of the important labor market data scheduled for release this week. These figures include the ADP employment report on Wednesday and the highly anticipated BLS jobs report on Friday, which will provide insights into non-farm payrolls, wage growth, and the unemployment rate for September.

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