US Job Openings Hit More Than 3-1/2-year Low; Consumer Confidence Rebounds

• U.S. job openings dropped to more than a 3-1/2-year low in September, but nearly all the decline in vacancies was in the South, suggesting that Hurricanes Helene and Milton had temporarily weighed on demand for labour. The downbeat report from the Labour Department on Tuesday was countered by a Conference Board survey showing consumers' perceptions of the jobs market improved considerably in October, helping to lift consumer confidence to a nine-month high.
• The hurricanes and strikes by factory workers in the aerospace industry are expected to have temporarily curbed job growth in October. Economists argue that the labour market picture has not changed materially since the surge in payroll gains in September.
• Job openings, a measure of labour demand, were down by 418,000 to 7.443 million by the last day of September, the lowest level since January 2021, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report.
• Nonfarm payrolls are expected to have increased by 115,000 jobs in October after a rise of 254,000 in September, a Reuters survey of economists showed. That would be the smallest count in six months. The unemployment rate is forecast to be unchanged at 4.1%.
• In a separate report on Tuesday, the Conference Board said consumer confidence increased to a nine-month high in October amid improved perceptions of the labour market. Consumers were little worried about the Nov. 5 U.S. election.

(Source: Reuters)