US job openings unexpectedly rebounded in August as the labor market stays surprisingly resilient in the face of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest-rate hike campaign.
The Labor Department said Tuesday there have been 9.6 million job openings in August, a marked increase from the revised 8.92 million openings reported the previous month.
Economists surveyed by Refinitiv expected a reading of 8.8 million. It marked the first time in three months that job listings trended higher.
The Federal Reserve closely watches these figures because it tries to gauge labor market tightness and wrestle inflation under control.
The upper-than-expected figure indicates that demand for workers still outpaces the supply of obtainable employees.
The central bank has responded to the inflation crisis and the extremely tight labor market by raising rates of interest at the fastest pace in many years.
![There were 9.6 million job openings in August, an increase from the 8.92 openings the month before.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/iStock-463400797.jpg?w=1024)
Officials have thus far approved 11 rate hikes, lifting the federal benchmark funds rate to the highest level since 2001. Policymakers have signaled that an additional rate hike is on the table this 12 months if economic data points to a resurgence in price pressures.
The newest jobs data could give policymakers more room to hike rates higher – and hold them at elevated levels for longer.
“Any wonder why the Fed expects to lift rates of interest again?” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate. “With 1.5 job openings for each unemployed employee, there’s little evidence of considerable easing in labor market demand, a risk to getting inflation lower.”
The uptick in vacancies last month largely stemmed from skilled and business services, finance and other services and nondurable goods manufacturing, in response to the report.
Job openings remain historically high. Before the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, the highest on record was 7.6 million.
There are roughly 1.5 jobs per unemployed American.
“One in all the top items the Fed desires to see is labor supply match labor demand, and the economy isn’t quite there yet,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial.
The variety of Americans quitting their jobs, meanwhile, ticked higher to three.6 million, or roughly 2.3% of the workforce, indicating that employees remain confident they’ll leave their jobs and find employment elsewhere.
Switching jobs has been a windfall for a lot of employees over the past 12 months: Job-switchers saw their real hourly wage increase 6.4% in July, compared with a 5.4% pay increase for employees who stayed in the same job, in response to recent Atlanta Fed data.