Another confirmation for the weakness of the job market in March: JOLTs job openings dropped to 4.994 million. Quits remained at 2.8 million. Little changes were seen in general.
The overal picture of the US labor market is positive, despite the dip in March. There is still one more NFP and one more JOLTs report before the next Fed decision in June.
The US was expected to report a level of 5.16 million job openings in March. The number of quits also plays an important role, as it reflects confidence. More people leaving jobs mean they either have a better paying one or have the confidence for a change in general.
The US dollar was the back foot earlier in the day due to a comment from FOMC member Dudley that seemingly showed skepticism about a rate hike.
This labor market related figure is of importance because the Fed sees it as a wider measure of the employment situation and despite the lagging release: we already have the Non-Farm Payrolls for April, which were OK.
But for March, the revision presented in the report was to the downside, even worse than the original disappointing figure. Only 85K jobs were gained in March. The markets tend to focus on the present and the future and dismiss the past.
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