If you can trust these reports, the May Job Openings and Labor Turnover report was a good surprise to the upside. Total job openings rose by 374,000 to 7.77 million, the second straight month of job opening increases substantially above expectations. There was another decline in federal government openings and large increases in accomodation and food services and finance and insurance. I suspect the large increase in openings is at least partly due to the massive drop in illegal immigration coupled with self and involuntary deportations. The spread between employed workers and openings also widened, generally the sign of a strong economy. The number of new hires dropped slightly, consistent with the increase in openings, while the number of quits rose. (BLS Release)
