Manufacturers hired more workers in August and job openings remained near the highest level in over two years. The quits rate for manufacturing workers, a signal of confidence, rose to the highest in nearly two years.
Manufacturers were looking to fill 522,000 jobs at the end of August, down from 576,000 in July, the government said Tuesday in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Despite the decline, openings in the factory sector are at their highest level since May of 2024.
Hires rose to 332,000 from July’s 293,000, nearly matching the 333,000 from June. Those are the highest levels of hiring since September 2024.
The quits rate—which measures the share of employees in a sector who voluntarily leave their jobs — rose two-tenths of a point to 1.6 percent. This is the highest since October 2024. A rising quits rate is considered a sign of a strengthening labor market.
Manufacturing was a bright spot in an otherwise staid report. U.S. job openings declined to 7.08 million from a revised 7.34 million in July. That was lower than the 7.2 million economists expected. Hires rose to 5.19 million from 5.15 million. Layoffs fell by 61,000 to 1.64 million, including a 1.57 million in the private sector, a decline of 50,000 from the previous month.
The U.S. labor market has been remarkably resilient this year, defying predictions that the energy shock from the Iran war would be a drag on payrolls. Jobless claims so far this year are at their lowest since 1969 and employers have added an average of 80,000 per month.
The information sector, which includes many technology jobs, showed an unexpected appetite for new hires. Job openings rose to 123,000 from 78,000 in the prior month. Actual hires declined, however, by 18,000 to 44,000.
Openings rose in retail trade and leisure and hospitality. Public sector openings declined.
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