Lightning strikes One World Trade Center in Manhattan as the sun sets behind the city after a summer storm in New York.
Economists forecast that job openings rose to 5.5 million, according to the Bloomberg consensus.
Last month, job openings fell to 5.4 million. Economists hadn't expected a drop that big, but it followed an uptick to record highs in the previous months.
Notably, the JOLTS report also contains the quits rate, which Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has endorsed as a preferred metric.
The previous report showed that the quits rate - the number of quits divided by the number of employees who worked or were paid for work - came in at 2.1%. The share of total quits in relation to separations - voluntary or not - jumped to 60.2%, matching the post-recession high reached in December.
A higher quits rate sends a positive message about the labor market because people are more likely to quit their jobs if they feel confident about finding a new one quickly, or if they already have another offer. It could also suggest that workers are leaving their jobs for better-paying ones, and so be a predictor of wage growth and inflation.