The June reading of the Labor Department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed substantially less jobs were added in June than the department's nonfarm payrolls report.
By the numbers: The JOLTS report showed 6.70 million hires, down by 503,000 from the month before, and there were 4.76 million separations, up 522,000 from May.
- In total, there were 1.94 million more hires than separations in June, less than half of the 4.79 million increase shown in June's payrolls report.
Why it matters: JOLTS is a more comprehensive analysis of the labor market than the more popular and timely monthly jobs report.
- JOLTS counts jobs for the entire month, rather than just the period near the 12th day of the month, meaning it picks up new hiring and separations in the second half of the month.
Between the lines: The June Quit Rate was 1.9%, up three-tenths from the month before, but still below the 2.3% rate that was the recent norm.
- That difference between the number of quits in February and June was 838,000, illustrating a declining confidence among the labor force.
- The report also found 5.89 million job openings in June, up for the second month in a row from 5.37 million in May.