Jobs & HiringAug 4, 2026·2 min read·🔥 High relevance

Why a measly 100,000 job openings is normal for the Trump economy

Fortune – Tech

2h ago

Why a measly 100,000 job openings is normal for the Trump economy

Summary

U.S. job openings fell slightly in June, but the labor market continued to show resilience in the face of an economic shock from fighting in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz . Employers posted 7.36 million vacancies in June, down from 7.54 million in May, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The numbers were in line with economist expectations. Layoffs were little-changed at 1.8 million, and the number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects — rose slightly. But hiring is weaker than it was in the jobs boom that followed pandemic lockdowns. Then, gross monthly hiring often topped 6 million. Still, the U.S. job market has remained sturdy despite a surge in energy prices caused by the conflict in Iran, rebounding from a 2025 slump. That is up from fewer than 10,000 a month last year — fewest outside a recession since 2002 — as employers held off on hiring because of high interest rates and uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s unpredictable economic policies. When the Labor Department releases its jobs report for July on Friday, it is expected to show job gains of 100,000, up from 57,000 in June. But Trump’s immigration crackdown and the ongoing retirements of baby boomers mean that fewer people are competing for work.

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U.S. job openings fell slightly in June, but the labor market continued to show resilience in the face of an economic shock from fighting in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz . Employers posted 7.36 million vacancies in June, down from 7.54 million in May, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The numbers were in line with economist expectations. Openings rose by 97,000 at warehouse , transportation and utility companies and 39,000 at federal government agencies. Openings dropped at wholesalers and manufacturers of nondurable goods. Layoffs were little-changed at 1.8 million, and the number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects — rose slightly. The gross number of people hired — before subtracting those who quit or lost their jobs — rose slightly 5.3 million. But hiring is weaker than it was in the jobs boom that followed pandemic lockdowns. Then, gross monthly hiring often topped 6 million. Still, the U.S. job market has remained sturdy despit

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June 2026 JOLTS Report: The Labor Market is a Duck on a Pond

Key Points : Job openings were little changed at 7.4 million in June, from a downwardly revised level in May, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The layoffs rate stayed steady at 1.1% in June 2026 and remains well within its recent range. Like a duck on a pond, the labor market is calm on the surface but paddling hard just below the water as the market reallocates hiring to outrun a shrinking, greying workforce. The headline numbers from today’s JOLTS data revealed that job openings were mostly unchanged at 7.4 million in June 2026, and together with the low hiring rate (3.4%), quits rate (2%), and layoffs rate (1.1%), suggest that the labor market is stuck in the low-hire, low-fire environment that’s prevailed since last year. But this may not be purely a labor demand story. The civilian labor force has declined since the end of 2025, signaling that the labor supply may be driving the decline in hiring in key sectors. With job openings steady, quits rates remaining at or below 2%, and layoffs still contained, the labor market shows few signs of cracking, but also continues to be driven by a handful of healthcare sectors. Private Education and Health Services led with 68,000 hires in June 2026, and that continued demand isn’t being met by domestic hiring alone . International recruitment has become a key battleground for the sector, with aging populations driving demand for healthcare professionals that can’t be met domestically due to labor shortages and skill mismatches. With the foreign-born labor force driving the overall decline in the civilian labor force, healthcare’s reliance on international recruitment may be exactly the sector to watch as limited labor supply increasingly shapes hiring in the labor market.

Why keeping youth discontent in check remains Indian PM Modi's biggest challenge

Exam leaks and a shortage of opportunities have sparked some of the biggest youth protests in years in India Dharmendra Pradhan was forced to resign as India's education minister last month after angry Gen-Z protesters took to the streets over repeated entrance exam paper leaks. Non-farm jobs have not been growing and real wages have stagnated," Santosh Mehrotra, a veteran economist and author of a new book India Out of Work: Rethinking India's Growth Story, told the BBC. "India has a simultaneous problem. India's Gen-Z protests forced the country's education minister to resign last month India has the world's largest youth population with over 360 million people between the ages of 15 and 29. However, "the transition from education to employment remains a major challenge, particularly for graduates", according to the State of Working India 2026 report , external from Azim Premji University. But it has been "magnified" in recent years owing to India's demographic surge - or a growing size of the population entering the workforce - and improved education outcomes. "Between 2004-05 and 2023, while approximately five million graduates were added each year, only around 2.8 million found employment, and an even smaller share entered salaried employment, contributing to rising graduate unemployment and slowing earnings growth," the report finds. However, India will need to think of a new industrial policy to focus on reviving overall manufacturing, he adds. IT hiring has risen in single digits in recent months, unstable contract work is rising, wages have remained stagnant for years and the knowledge-based jobs that Indian STEM graduates took for granted two decades ago are no longer around in big numbers, according to Neeti Sharma, CEO of Team Lease Digital, one of India's most prominent staffing agencies. Because the hiring has also moved from degrees to actual skills," Sharma told the BBC.

The computer science major is dying so that the AI literacy minor can be born: ‘we have to democratize it’

With no background in coding, Faith Maeba, a psychology major, was reluctant when her mother first suggested she enroll in classes on artificial intelligence . But the senior at Virginia Commonwealth University began to see it differently as she looked into graduate psychology programs that explore human behavior in the workplace, which is quickly being upended by machine learning. Maeba, 21, is now pursuing a minor in AI. “It’s giving me an edge and standing out,” she said. Hiring has cooled for entry-level software developers — work increasingly done by AI agents — and college enrollment in computer and information science programs has been declining. Yet at campuses across the country, many professors are finding themselves busier than ever teaching students from a range of majors about artificial intelligence. That’s because computer science, then seen as a golden ticket to a high-paying job, was exploding in popularity. Nationwide, enrollment in computer and information sciences continued falling this spring, down more than 8% at four-year institutions from the spring of 2025, according to the latest data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, a dip that came as job postings for software developers dropped. Even before this latest surge in interest, STEM majors — like physicists and biologists — often took computer science classes to learn how to code for data-heavy research. Community colleges that want to offer non-credit classes are able to move especially fast, because the approval process is less cumbersome. One in suburban Kansas City recently offered a non-credit “vibe-coding” class to teach nontechies to create working software. “What AI does is shrink that distance between a complete novice and an expert,” said Grant Carlson, program coordinator for workforce development and continuing education at Johnson County Community College.

Why a measly 100,000 job openings is normal for the Trump economy

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June 2026 JOLTS Report: The Labor Market is a Duck on a Pond

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