Job openings slumped to their lowest level in 3½ years in July, the Labor Department reported Wednesday in another sign of slack in the labor market.
"The labor market is no longer cooling down to its pre-pandemic temperature, it's dropped past it," said Nick Bunker, head of economic research at the Indeed Hiring Lab.
"Nobody, and certainly not policymakers at the Federal Reserve, should want the labor market to get any cooler at this point."
While the job openings level declined, layoffs increased to 1.76 million, up 202,000 from June.
"The still low level of layoffs and tick up in hires suggests the labor market is not cracking.
Persons:
Dow Jones, it's, Nick Bunker, Krishna Guha, nonfarm
Organizations:
Labor Department, Labor, Survey, Federal Reserve, Global Policy, Central Bank, Evercore ISI