The U.S. labor market showed fresh signs of resilience on Thursday, as private hiring surged, layoffs slowed and filings for unemployment benefits stayed relatively low.
U.S. companies added almost half a million jobs last month, the most in more than a year, according to data from ADP Research Institute in collaboration with Stanford Digital Economy Lab. A separate report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed announced job cuts by U.S. employers fell in June to an eight-month low.
While the ADP data often differ from the government’s employment report, which is due Friday, the figures are still consistent with a broader trend of a labor market that’s barely cooling.
That was also evident in the latest report on job openings. Vacancies declined in May – unwinding much of an April surge and indicating labor demand and supply are coming more into balance. The quits rate, however, rose by the most in nine months, indicating workers still feel confident in their ability to secure another job.
“The labor market isn’t always going to be this strong. Recessions happen,” Nick Bunker, research director at Indeed Hiring Lab, said in a note. “But today’s data and data from the past several months continue to make a soft-landing scenario increasingly likely.”
Click here to read the full report from Reade Pickert at Bloomberg, via Yahoo.
