US job openings hit 13-year high

The number of US job openings hit a 13-year high in June and more workers quit their jobs, pointing to a tightening labor market, Labour Department data showed on Tuesday. Non-farm job openings in the private and public sectors rose to 4.7 million on the last business day of June, from 4.6 million in May. That was the largest number of openings since February 2001, and increases were seen across the entire country. Job openings have trended upward since January by an average of 159,000 a month. In June, the ratio of openings to employment rose a tenth point to 3.3 per cent, according to the department’s Job Openings and Labour Turnover (JOLTS) report. A total of 2.53 million people quit a job in June, up from 2.49m in May. Quits generally indicate workers’ willingness or ability to leave jobs, a positive sign for the labour market. But the quit rate stood at 1.8 per cent of total employment for the fifth consecutive month in June. Total separations, or turnover, which includes quits, layoffs, discharges and other forms of separations, such as retirement and disability, rose to 4.55m in June from 4.53m in May, according to AFP.