(Washington, DC) — The number of job openings unexpectedly jumped in May.
The Labor Department says seven-point-eight million jobs were available which is up from seven-point-four million in April. Economists had expected the number of available jobs to dip slightly after April’s bounce. According to the JOLTS report, restaurants and hotels led the way in job postings followed by the finance and insurance industry. Meanwhile, the number of federal job openings fell in May.
The monthly employment report for June beat expectations with the number of new jobs created. The Labor Department reports non-farm payrolls increased by 147-thousand last month. Most analysts were expecting to see today’s number come in somewhere between 110 and 115-thousand. The 147-thousand is also better than the 139-thousand new jobs added the month prior. The unemployment rate had been expected to tick up just a bit to four-point-three percent, instead it did the opposite, falling – but only slightly – to four-point-one percent.
