US job openings dip to 9.8mn but remain high, showing resilience in labor market

livemint.com:

Digital Economy Lab, showed that the private sector added 497,000 jobs last month, far exceeding economists’ expectations for 228,000 jobs and ADP’s May total of 267,000 hires. The unexpected jump in payrolls comes despite more than a year’s worth of Federal Reserve interest rate increases aimed in large part to cool a jobs market in which there are still nearly two open positions for every available worker.

From a sector standpoint, leisure and hospitality led with 232,000 new hires, followed by construction with 97,000, and trade, transportation and utilities at 90,000. Annual pay rose at a 6.4% rate, representing a continued slowing that nonetheless still is indicative of brewing inflationary pressures.

Economists expect that June’s job gains will be lower than that average and also down from the 339,000 jobs added in May. Consensus estimates are for a net gain of 225,000 jobs last month, reported according CNN quoting Refinitiv's data.  The unemployment rate is expected to dip to 3.6% from 3.7%, according to the Refinitiv estimates, which range from 3.4% to 3.8%, the CNN report added.

Economists have long predicted the United States would tumble into recession this year. But the job market's persistent sturdiness has raised doubts about whether a downturn is inevitable after all.