Job opening data falls to levels rarely seen since pandemic

Job openings ticked down in July to levels rarely seen since the Covid pandemic, bolstering fears of cooling in the labor market.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover report showed around 7.18 million listings in July, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday. That's only the second reading under the 7.2 million level since the end of 2020.

Wednesday's print was the lowest since September 2024, when just over 7.1 million openings were reported. Outside of that blip lower last year, these job opening levels were last seen when the pandemic was causing an upheaval of the U.S. economy and labor force.

It also came in below expectations for 7.4 million openings from economists polled by Dow Jones.

That underscored rising concerns of weakening in the labor market, a trend that has shown up in anecdotal evidence for several months.

"This is a turning point for the labor market," said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. "It's yet another crack."

"This is yet another data point underscoring how this job market is frozen and it's difficult for anyone to get a job right now," Long added.

Weekly jobless claims data due on Thursday will offer the next round of insight into the health of the job market. Then, attention turns to the closely followed jobs report on Friday morning.