By Scott Kanowsky
Investing.com -- The number of job openings in the U.S. unexpectedly rose slightly in July, hovering under a record high reached earlier this year, in a sign that labor market demand in the world's largest economy remains robust despite aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.
The Labor Department's preliminary monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed available jobs inched up to 11.24M on the last day of the month, increasing from an upwardly revised reading of 11.04M in June. Economists had anticipated the seasonally adjusted data to come in at just below 10.48M vacancies.
The figure had been declining for three straight months since touching an all-time peak of 11.855M in March.
There were 5.93M unemployed people in the U.S. in July, meaning there were just under 1.9 jobs available for a worker seeking a position. A higher ratio is typically seen as an indication of tightness in the overall labor market.
The so-called JOLTs numbers are closely monitored by Fed policymakers as they mull monetary policy decisions. The central bank has been unveiling big borrowing cost increases recently in a bid to bring down inflation, and continued labor market tightness may serve to bolster their case for keeping rates higher for longer.
The amount of workers voluntarily leaving their jobs was little changed at 4.2M, while the quits rate - used by Fed policymakers to measure confidence workers have in their ability to find new employment - slipped only marginally to 2.7%. Layoffs and discharges were also mostly unchanged at 1.4M.
Transportation, warehousing, and utilities saw openings move up by 81,000, along with an uptick of 53,000 in arts, entertainment and recreation. Partly offsetting these gains was a decrease of 47,000 in the durable goods manufacturing sector.
On a regional basis, three of the four major American areas in the study saw increases in openings - including the west of the U.S., which has recently seen a string of layoffs in its all-important technology industry. Only the northeast region showed a fall in vacancies.