The number of vacant jobs in the United States has just fallen to the lowest level in more than two years

Minneapolis
CNN
—

U.S. job openings fell in June to the lowest level since April 2021, according to the latest labor turnover data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The number of vacant jobs fell for the second month in a row and measured a seasonally adjusted 9.582 million, or 1.6 jobs per year. job seeker.

The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report shows that vacancies ticked down from a revised 9.61 million. in May and shrank significantly since peaking north of 12 million in March 2022.

Vacancies rose in industries such as health care and state and local government, excluding education, where postings fell. Job openings also fell in industries such as transportation, warehousing and utilities, and the federal government.

Economists expected 9.61 million openings, according to Refinitiv estimates.

On a monthly basis, the June JOLTS report also showed that new hires fell to 5.91 million from 6.23 million, resignations fell back to 3.722 million from 4.067 million, and layoffs fell to 1.527 million from 1.546 million.

The U.S. labor market is slowly coming back into balance, but business needs still outpace the number of Americans looking for work, a skew that the Federal Reserve sees as contributing to demand and thus inflation.

Some of the labor turnover metrics are further away from their pre-pandemic levels than others—in February 2020, openings were just 7 million, resignations were 3.49 million, and layoffs were 1,968—yet the estimated 5.9 million new hires in June were nearly in line with the 5.864 million seen in February 2020.

This story is in development and will be updated.