Following a sharp employment slowdown during the month of June, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that July saw the emergence of a record number of job openings across all industries.
According to the data, the number of job openings soared from 749,000 at the start of the month to 10.9 million on the final day of July. This is the highest level recorded since the job openings category (a measure of labor demand) was first measured back in December 2000.
Despite the increase in job opportunities, the actual hiring of new employees has proven to remain stagnant, with 6.7 million people being hired in July according to the Labor Department in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.
One of the most rapidly increasing sectors in terms of job opportunities was nonfarm payrolls, which increased by 1.053 million in July. The growth slowed down drastically in August, however, with only 235,000 jobs being added during the new month.
