https://www.theepochtimes.com/job-openings-surge-by-10-percent-to-6-6-million-topping-expectations_3493679.html
Job openings in the United States, which are a measure of labor demand, rose by 10 percent to 6.6 million in July, while the number of people quitting their jobs rose by 2.1 percent between June and July, suggesting an uptick in confidence in being able to find work.
The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), released Wednesday, showed that the number of job vacancies jumped by 617,000 to 6.6 million on the last day of July, above the 6 million that economists surveyed by FactSet predicted.
Manufacturing saw a 17.9 percent surge in job openings. Industries that saw the largest increases in vacancies were retail trade (172,000), health care and social assistance (146,000), and construction (90,000). The U.S. housing market, in particular, has shown remarkable resilience amid the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus outbreak, with an August report from the U.S. Census Bureau (pdf) showing building permits, a predictor of future activity, rising by 18.8 percent from June to July. Housing starts, meanwhile, surged by 22.6 percent between June and July. In another sign that the economic recovery may be picking up speed, U.S. home sales rose at a record rate for a second straight month in July.
Wednesday’s JOLTS report showed that vacancies were highest in trade, transportation, and utilities (1.292 million), followed by education and health services (1.262 million), and business and professional services (1.2 million), with all three categories seeing growth from the month before.