Job openings rose in July, beating analyst estimates to reach a new series high, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday.
Job openings climbed to 5.75 million in July, according to the JOLTS report, a measure of job openings and labor turnover in the U.S. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast 5.29 million job openings in July, up from 5.32 million in June.
July's job openings were the highest since the series began in December 2000, beating the previous record of 5.4 million job openings, set in May.
JOLTS, a closely-followed barometer of labor conditions, measures employee movements in non-farm, private businesses and government, as well as job hires and separations in different industries.
The total number of jobs increased over the past twelve months for non-farm and private businesses, and stayed flat for government positions, the agency said. The largest increases occurred in professional and business services, health care, food services and retail. Industries like mining and logging saw a decline in job openings over the year.
There were 5 million new hires in July, representing a hiring rate of 3.5 percent, down slightly from June. Four million, seven hundred thousand employees were laid off, discharged, or quit in July, at a rate of 3.3 percent, also down slightly from June.