(CNN) — The US labor market, long stuck in a “low-hire, low-fire” slog, is starting to show some signs of life.
The latest official labor turnover data showed that employers increased hiring efforts in June, a slight but welcome ramp-up.
The number of job openings has trended higher in April and May, indicating employers’ appetites were growing to expand their workforces; however, hiring remained muted.
That started to change a little in June, according to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Hiring activity hit a three-month high. The number of job openings edged lower to 7.36 million but remained above levels seen last year.
Economists had expected that the estimated number of available jobs – considered a metric of labor demand – would fall in June to 7.4 million from May’s initial estimate of 7.594 million openings.
Tuesday’s data is the first in a series of critically important economic metrics released this week about the labor market, culminating with the July jobs report on Friday morning.
This story is developing and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
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