Job openings show surprise increase in April

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Yahoo Finance

Job openings show surprise increase in April

Josh Schafer · Reporter
Wed, May 31, 2023 at 11:49 AM EDT

Job openings in April rose to their highest level since January. The resilient labor market data adds to a growing narrative that continuously strong economic data could prompt the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates again in June.

The latest Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTs report, released Wednesday revealed 10.1 million job openings at the end of April, an increase from the 9.8 million in job openings reported in March. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected 9.4 million openings in April.

The strong job openings print adds to the largely resilient data that's come in since the last Federal Reserve meeting and has markets pricing in another interest rate hike in June.

{snip}

Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/job-openings-show-surprise-increase-in-april-142039924.html

[Cheezoholic]

1. I'm sick of an economy that only rewards the wealthy

whether it's up or down or sideways. Fuck this treadmill of cruelty.

[progree]

2. That's strange, per the CME Fed Watch tool, the probability of a rate hike has PLUNGED since

yesterday.

Yesterday it was a 66% chance of a rate hike

Right now, May 31 2:56 PM ET, its 28%

An article that I read this morning around 10 am said it had gone up, citing the CME FedWatch tool
(https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html)
, given that more job openings is an indicator of a tighter labor market, so something else must have changed big time since this morning.

The next Fed meeting is Tuesday-Wednesday June 13-14 (the rate vote is on the 14th)

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. April job openings edge up; total separations and layoffs and discharges decrease

April job openings edge up; total separations and layoffs and discharges decrease
The number of job openings edged up to 10.1 million on the last business day of April. The number of hires was little changed at 6.1 million. Total separations and layoffs and discharges decreased to 5.7 million and 1.6 million, respectively.

Economic News Release USDL-23-1193

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary
For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Technical information: [phone] • [e-mail] • www.bls.gov/jlt
Media contact: [phone] • [e-mail]

JOB OPENINGS AND LABOR TURNOVER – APRIL 2023

The number of job openings edged up to 10.1 million on the last business day of April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the month, the number of hires changed little at 6.1 million. Total separations decreased to 5.7 million. Within separations, quits (3.8 million) changed little, while layoffs and discharges (1.6 million) decreased. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the total nonfarm sector, by industry, and by establishment size class.

Job Openings

On the last business day of April, the number of job openings edged up to 10.1 million (+358,000). The job openings rate was little changed at 6.1 percent. In April, job openings increased in retail trade (+209,000); health care and social assistance (+185,000); and transportation, warehousing, and utilities (+154,000). (See table 1.)

Hires

In April, the number of hires was little changed at 6.1 million, and the rate held at 3.9 percent. Hires decreased in information (-37,000). (See table 2.)

Separations

Total separations include quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations. Quits are generally voluntary separations initiated by the employee. Therefore, the quits rate can serve as a measure of workers’ willingness or ability to leave jobs. Layoffs and discharges are involuntary separations initiated by the employer. Other separations include separations due to retirement, death, disability, and transfers to other locations of the same firm.

The number of total separations decreased to 5.7 million (-286,000) in April, and the rate was little changed at 3.7 percent. Over the month, the number of total separations was little changed in all industries. (See table 3.)

In April, the number and rate of quits changed little at 3.8 million and 2.4 percent, respectively. The number of quits increased in wholesale trade (+29,000) but decreased in state and local government, excluding education (-18,000). (See table 4.)

In April, the number and rate of layoffs and discharges decreased to 1.6 million (-264,000) and 1.0 percent, respectively. Layoffs and discharges decreased in construction (-113,000) and in information (-33,000). (See table 5.)

The number of other separations was little changed in April at 333,000. Other separations increased in health care and social assistance (+24,000), state and local government, excluding education (+10,000), and mining and logging (+2,000). Other separations decreased in accommodation and food services (-18,000) and in arts, entertainment, and recreation (-3,000). (See table 6.)

Establishment Size Class

In April, establishments with 1 to 9 employees saw an increase in their job openings rate and a decrease in their layoffs and discharges rate. Establishments with more than 5,000 employees saw an increase in both their job openings and hires rates. (See table 7.)
____________
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey estimates for May 2023 are scheduled to be released on Thursday, July 6, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. (ET).

{snip a whole bunch of links to tables}

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Fed's Jefferson and Harker suggests central bank will pause in June

Yahoo Finance

Fed's Jefferson and Harker suggests central bank will pause in June

Jennifer Schonberger·Senior Reporter
Wed, May 31, 2023 at 1:26 PM EDT

Federal Reserve Governor Philip Jefferson and Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker suggested Wednesday that the central bank could pause rate hikes at its next policy meeting.

Jefferson, President Biden's nominee to be vice chair of the Fed's Board of Governors, noted that such a decision wouldn't necessarily mean the Fed was done hiking rates.

“A decision to hold our policy rate constant at a coming meeting should not be interpreted to mean that we have reached the peak rate for this cycle,” Jefferson said in a speech at a conference in Washington, DC. “Skipping a rate hike at a coming meeting would allow the committee to see more data before making decisions about the extent of additional policy firming.”

Harker, speaking in Philadelphia, said “I am in a camp increasingly coming into this meeting of thinking that we really should skip, not pause,” adding that “we've got to get to a point where we believe policy is restrictive and I think we're close if not at that point right now.

Harker said he wanted to look at two key pieces of data: the May jobs report due out Friday and another read on inflation via the consumer price index on the first day of the Fed's next policy meeting, June 13.

{snip}

[IronLionZion]

5. Since they keep saying tax cuts create jobs

when we have too many jobs, maybe we should roll back the tax cuts for the wealthy "job creators"? Nobody wants to work anymore ... on the cheap labor express.

GOP desperately wants a return to "they're stealing our jobs". Because there's only so much traction they can get with "woke" and "trans" and "CRT". They need their idiot voters to claim my birth certificate is fake like President Obama's.