After five straight months of JOLTS beats, including two blowout prints for April and May and zero misses since 2025...
... it was inevitable that the BLS would eventually pot out a disappointment, if only to preserve the myth of "accurate data."
That's what happened today when in the latest JOLTS report, the US dept of labor reported that in June the US had 7.359 million job openings, down 178K from the (downward revised) May total of 7.537 million, and below the median estimate of 7.454 million.
Where did the openings come from? According to the BLS the number of job openings increased in transportation, warehousing, and utilities (+97,000) and in federal government. Job openings decreased in wholesale trade (-74,000), nondurable goods manufacturing (-55,000), and mining and logging (-9,000).
Of note, Federal government soared by 39K from 100K to 139K, the highest print not only of 2026 but the highest print going back all the way to October 2024 (i.e., when Biden was still president).
The June drop in job openings was juxtaposed with an overall drop in June employment, which meant t
