Job openings unexpectedly rose to their highest level in two years in May, beating estimates and suggesting that high gas prices and uncertainty around the Iran war did not weigh on rising employer demand for workers.
Vacant positions ticked up to 7.6 million in May. Before rounding, this was an increase to 7,594 million from the downwardly revised estimate of 7,585 million in April. Economists had forecast openings would decline to around 7.3 million.
This was the second month of rising openings and the highest level of openings since May of 2024.
There were strong gains in blue-collar openings. Manufacturing openings increased by 33,000 to 529,000. Construction openings rose by 32,000 to 298,000. Openings in the category of mining and logging, which includes oil and natural gas extraction, rose by two million to 29 million.
Wholesale trade openings jumped by 78,000 to 249,000 and retail trade openings increased by 8,000 to 687,000. Openings in transportation, warehousing, and utilities declined. Leisure and hospitality openings rose by 95,000 to 941,000.
Information and finance openings declined. Health care and social assistance openings dropped by 115,000 to 1.424 million.
Openings in the federal government declined by 14,000 while state and local government openings rose by 20,000.
The hiring rate held steady at 3.3 percent as about 5.2 million Americans started new jobs in May. About 3.1 million workers voluntarily let there job in May, unchanged from the prior month, for a quits rate of 1.9 percent.
Around 1.7 million workers were laid off or discharged, unchanged from April. The layoffs rate changed little at 1.1 percent.
The figures suggest U.S. businesses have a growing appetite for workers. While openings are down since the highly unusual post-pandemic period, they are elevated by historical standards.
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