A record number of workers who quit indicates that the job market remains strong even if job offers fall and hiring slows down



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A bricklayer at work in Connecticut. Opportunities in the United States declined slightly in July

Numbers: In the United States, job offers edged down in July to reach their lowest level in five months, a sign of a drop in the demand for labor, but layoffs have remained extremely low and the number of people who have stopped working has reached an unprecedented level, generally marked by the strength of the job market. .

The number of vacancies dropped to 7.22 million in July from 7.25 million the previous month, the government said on Tuesday.


Lily: The United States creates only 130,000 new jobs in August, allowing the Fed to cut rates

What happened: Job offers have decreased among wholesalers and the government, offsetting an increase in media and energy related work, such as oil extraction. Lower oil prices have forced drillers to reduce employment.

The proportion of people who left their jobs by their own means, known as the quit rate, reached 2.6% among private sector employees. This was a peak of the 2008 recession.

The only time the quit rate rose was in 2001, soon after the government started to know how many people had left their jobs.

The quit rate of all employees has also gone up a notch – the first increase in more than a year – to reach a 18-year high of 2.4%. Some 3.6 million workers have resigned – a record.


The smoking cessation rate tends to increase when the economy is strong and workers are convinced that they can find another, often better paid, job.

Lily: For the first time in 11 years, 80% of Americans in the prime of life work

Big picture: Opportunities are still quite high and easily exceed 6 million Americans officially classified as unemployed, but businesses are not filling positions as quickly. The United States has created an average of 150,000 new jobs per month in the last six months, up from 232,000 in January.

Labor market prospects may weaken further.

President Trump announced in early August an increase in tariffs on imports from China, causing a sharp decline in stock markets and a loss of corporate confidence. The global economy is also weakened in the face of escalating trade dispute with China, hitting farmers, manufacturers and other major exporters hard.

The US economy can continue to grow even if hiring slows, but only as long as companies avoid layoffs. So far, there is no tangible evidence of the increase in layoffs.

What are they saying? "Declining job offers are generally a sign of slower growth in payroll," said Neil Dutta, head of economics at Renaissance Macro Research. "The increase in the number of drop-outs is welcome as it indicates that workers remain confident that they can find work."

Lily: US consumers are far from spent and it's a lifeline for an unstable economy

Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average

DJIA, + 0.03%

and S & P 500

SPX, -0.18%

fell in the trades on Tuesday. The 10-year Treasury yield

TMUBMUSD10Y, + 2.56%

slightly down to 1.65%.

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