The number of job openings in the U.S. didn’t change a whole lot last month, according to the fresh Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The JOLTS data also showed that while people are still mostly skittish about quitting their jobs, layoffs aren’t up.

There was even a sliver of good-ish news: For every person out there looking for a job, there are 1.05 jobs available — at least on paper.

“The ratio of job openings relative to unemployed individuals — that’s a metric of how tight the labor market might be — actually continues to rise, and it’s at its highest level since January 2025,” said Deutschebank Chief Economist Matt Luzzetti.

The Federal Reserve could take that as a sign that it can go ahead and raise interest rates, since the job market looks strong enough to withstand an increase. (Remember, the Fed is considering raising rates to fight stubborn inflation.)

“So the labor market is not a reason to not raise rates at this point in time,” Luzzetti said.

Markets are saying there’s a 70% chance the Fed raises interest rates at its September meeting.

Still, though the job market may be stable — the unemployment rate has come down, layoffs are down slightly — it’s not exactly a great job market.

“People aren’t necessarily flipping jobs at this point, probably because wage growth isn’t that great, and you know, companies aren’t laying off people, probably because it took them a while maybe to hire some of those people, and they’re not going to be quick to just let them go,” said Michael Kramer, founder of Mott Capital Management.

Also, the labor market situation varies significantly by industry. If you work in durable goods manufacturing, there were 76,000 new job openings in July to choose from. But if you’re in business and professional services, there were 68,000 fewer of those job postings.

“So this duality of the labor market is definitely quite striking,” said Sneha Puri, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. “Every month we kind of see these really stark differences, where job seekers in some sectors are experiencing very different realities while they are looking for a job compared to job seekers in other sectors.”

Puri said whatever this is — this labor market where jobs are secure if you have them and hard to get if you don’t — it’s probably the new normal.

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