- Manufacturing job openings pulled back from a record high but remained very elevated, down from a revised 906,000 in July to 870,000 in August. It was the fifth straight month with postings that exceeded 800,000. In addition, quits in the manufacturing sector increased from 300,000 in July to 306,000 in August, a new all-time high. Likewise, nonfarm payroll quits soared from 4,028,000 to a record 4,270,000.
- Nonfarm business job openings decreased from a record 11,098,000 in July to 10,439,000 in August. There were 8,384,000 unemployed Americans in August, which translates to 0.80 unemployed workers for every one job opening in the U.S. economy. That speaks to the tightness of the labor market, with more job openings than people looking for work.
- According to the National Federation of Independent Business, the percentage of small business respondents suggesting they had job openings they were unable to fill inched up from 50% to 51%, a new record, and the percentage of respondents saying there were few or no qualified applicants for job openings rose from 60% to a record 62%.
Initial and continuing unemployment claims dropped to post-pandemic lows in the latest data.