Wholesale Trade and Job Openings Both Point to Stronger Summer

In the wholesale trade report for April, inventories rose by 1.1%, above the 0.6% gain expected by Dow Jones. The prior month’s report was also static at 1.1%.

Wholesale trade is a measurement of the total dollar value of sales made and of the inventory on the books and shelves of wholesalers.

The reading from the so-called JOLTS Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that there were 4.455 million job openings in April, up from 4.014 million at the end of March. Bloomberg was expecting just over 4.02 million. Other data was as follows: latest job openings rate was 3.1% and the hires rate was 3.4% in April. There was a 3.3% reading in the turnovers rate, with 1.8% quits and 1.2% in layoffs and discharges.

JOLTS is the Department of Labor’s acronym for the monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The report comes with a one-month lag as well, and the headline number covers job openings. This is still not showing enough “quits” where employees are leaving one job for a better opportunity elsewhere.

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