Job openings in the U.S. unexpectedly showed a notable increase in the month of August, the Labor Department revealed in a report released on Tuesday.
The Labor Department said job openings surged to 9.61 million in August from an upwardly revised 8.92 million in July.
The jump surprised economists, who had expected job openings to edge down to 8.80 million from the 8.83 million originally reported for the previous month.
Job openings in professional and business services shot up by 509,000, while job openings in finance and insurance, state and local government education, nondurable goods manufacturing and federal government also increased.
Meanwhile, the report also said the number of hires and total separations were little changed at 5.9 million and 5.7 million, respectively.
Within separations, quits (3.6 million) and layoffs and discharges (1.7 million) also showed little change over the month.
