The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey around 10 a.m. ET. Economists forecast that job openings in the US totaled 5.75 million in April, up from 5.743 million in March, according to Bloomberg. Openings rose to a record 5.973 million last July.
The high number of openings underscores the challenges that some employers have filling positions, even for jobs that are not highly specialized.
The JOLTS report will also include the quits rate, which registered at 2.1% in March. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has said this rate signifies how confident people are in being able to find a new job if they resign, and so is a good bellwether of overall labor-market conditions. Meanwhile, involuntary separations remain low, suggesting that employers are finding ways to retain employees as the labor market tightens.
In May, the pace of job creation in the US slowed by more than expected to 138,000 nonfarm payrolls, a BLS report on Friday showed. Less participation in the labor market pushed the unemployment rate to a 16-year low of 4.4%.