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The
department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) also
showed that layoffs fell. But so did the number of people
quitting their jobs a sign of confidence in their prospects.
The report showed that gross hiring before subtracting those
who lost or quit their jobs dipped to 5.1 million in July from
5.3 million in June.
The American job market is hardly booming, but it is ambling
along despite an energy shock caused by the fighting with Iran
that has squeezed family budgets.
So far this year, U.S. employers companies, nonprofits and
government agencies added an average of 61,000 net jobs a
month. The figure which was dragged down by job losses in
February and July is unimpressive. But it's an improvement on
2025 when job growth came in below 10,000 a month weakest
hiring outside a recession since 2002 as the lingering effect
of high interest rates and uncertainty caused by Trump's tariffs
discouraged firms from hiring.
But if U.S. employers aren't hiring much, at least they aren't
firing much either. The unemployment rate remains at a low 4.1%,
and the number of people signing up for unemployment benefits
has come in low week after week.
The labor market is back in the low fire, low hire mode,
said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.
"Companies are growing cautious as the war in Iran drags on and
borrowing costs have spiked.''
When the Labor Department puts out numbers on August hiring and
unemployment Friday, it's expected to show that employers added
65,000 last month and that the jobless rate ticked up to 4.2%,
according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet.
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