U.S. job openings rose 749k to a high of 10.9M in July

Brian Sozzi and Julie Hyman discuss the factors contributing to the latest JOLTs report that showcases a 749K increase in openings resulting in 10.9M job openings in the nation.

Video Transcript

BRIAN SOZZI: First, let's pivot to jobs in the economy for a moment, some breaking news, Julie on the jobs from the JOLTS coming in. Very exciting report. The number of job openings increased to a serious high of 10.9 million for July. Very fascinating number.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, and it's exciting though in the wrong direction, Brian and kind of comports with what we saw from the jobs report last Friday, which paints a picture of an economy that has too many jobs and not enough people to fill them. And this report is just one more piece of evidence in that direction. This was a record-high number for July, as you said 10.9 million. The quits rate unchanged at 2.7%. Although that is also near a high. That is the percentage of the overall workforce that quit during the month.

And let's also talk about where these job openings are, OK. We've got them increasing in a number of different industries, the biggest in health care and social assistance, 294,000 job openings in that area. Finance and insurance, 116,000. And accommodation and food services, 115,000 job openings there. And there were increases, it looks like in the Northeast, South, and West regions.

So I think that's pretty much everywhere except maybe the Midwest. I don't know how they break down the various areas here. So again, what this shows us is that people are not necessarily going back to work or not going back to the jobs they held before, are not wanting to work in these particular industries. As we know, the last of the additional supplemental unemployment insurance has just expired.

So now the question is everybody keeps saying September is when things are going to change. Kids go back to school, unemployment insurance expires, the extra unemployment insurance, so will there then be more of a meaningful shift back to the market? Obviously, this JOLTS data is a little bit delayed. We're getting the July data right now, not the August data. There are other measures of the job market that are more current.

But nonetheless, we're really going to have to see if September is going to deliver in the way that has been talked about and promised.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, real curious, Julie. Good point you mentioned that this is July data. Curious on how August and ultimately September come out here. Look, we have seen some pretty interesting earnings, warnings this morning from a Shirley Williams, at PPG, at Pulte home, those companies still suggesting they can't find enough workers. But if growth, is in fact, slowing down and there are indications that growth is slowing down, a lot of economic data reports suggest as much, do those job openings come back? Do employers pull back on the how many jobs they have listed on their websites?