U.S. job openings fall to nine-month low

Job opening in the U.S. has posted the lowest in nine months, signaling slowdown in its labor market. Strong labor market has been what buoyed U.S. economy so far while it posted negative economic growths for the first two quarters in a raw this year. However, the drop in job vacancies is raising concerns that it may speed up the country’s economic downturn.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported on Tuesday (local time) 10.7 million job opening as of June, down by 605,000 postings (5.4 percent) than the previous month, and the lowest since the last September. Since peaked in March with 11.86 million openings, the number declined to 11.68 million in April and 11.3 million in May, as well as in the following three months. The biggest drop originated from the retail industry where 343,000 openings were lost.

Although Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and Fed Chair Jerome Powell have claimed that U.S. economy is not on the brink of slowdown basing its strong trend in employment rate, the recently reported data in hiring begs to differ.

Amid the high-ranking officials in the Fed are indicating their intentions to maintain interest hike policy as a way to control the close-to nine percent inflation rate, the job opening drop will likely to put additional burdens to the country’s economic situations.


Hyoun-Soo Kim kimhs@donga.com