The number of US job openings fell in August

pulse

October 11, 2017 3:44 PM

The pace of US job creation is slowed in August, according to Wall Street economists.

Job openings in the US fell in August, which may have been impacted by the hurricanes that swept through much of the southern coastal parts of the country.

Openings totaled 6.082 million from a downwardly revised 6.14 million in July, according to the monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released by the Labor Department.

The numbers missed expectations from a survey of Wall Street economists conducted by Bloomberg, which forecast 6.125 million openings as a result of the extreme weather events.

Healthcare had the biggest increase in job openings, adding 71,000, followed by durable goods manufacturing, which added 31,000. However, the areas hardest hit were in services, education, and nondurable goods manufacturing, according to the report.

The pace of hiring was little changed at 3.7% from 3.8% the previous month, with 5.4 million hires in August.

The JOLTS report also found that the number of quits dropped off slightly to 3.1 million in August from 3.2 million in the previous month, the report found. Quits fell in the information and mining and logging sectors.

In September, the US economy lost more jobs than it created for the first time in seven years, according to the Labor Department's last jobs report. The unemployment rate hit to its lowest rate since February, at 4.2%.

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