JOLTS data reveals hiring and turnover remained largely flat in June

The Department of Labor released the June Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data on August 4, and while the economy has shown signs of stress for months, turnover has remained largely unchanged.

HR Brew caught up with Nicole Bachaud, labor economist at ZipRecruiter, to break down the latest numbers.

The data. The total number of job openings remained largely unchanged at 7.4 million and hires were unchanged at 5.3 million. Certain sectors, including the normally robust healthcare and tech sectors, showed signs of timid movement.

“We’re seeing a little bit of balancing going on,” Bachaud told HR Brew, noting that job openings dwindled from their peak three months ago. “Employers are catching up to actually execute on some of these openings that they had going out.”

Bachaud said that this movement could signal “more stability” ahead for job openings.

The healthcare industry accounted for 83% of the jobs lost last month. “We’re seeing a pullback versus more openings being added,” Bachaud said. “But I wouldn’t really focus too heavily on a one-month drop in openings when we’re seeing relative stability elsewhere.”

And while the tech industry has been in the news as a result of layoffs, it seems many employers are hiring. (The month over month gains stayed strong, with 18,000 openings, but shifted down 33,000 from this time last year.)

“Layoffs has been the headline of people pointing to AI causing this mass reduction in jobs in this one sector. But really, what we’re seeing is more turnover,” Bachaud said. “That points to employers looking at jobs that are impacted by AI and saying, ‘Okay, I’m going to need a different skill set of workers to fill these jobs.’”

What HR needs to know. Workers and employers are continuing to approach the job market with caution, thanks to rising inflation and gas prices, according to Bachaud. But, she said, the tides may soon change.

“[They] have started to rock the boat a little bit, and that’s where we are right now—of this wait and see,” she said. “I expect we’ll at least see one more month in the jobs report of this relative hesitation.”