News in end use

The construction labor market experienced an increase in job openings in May, following a downward revision to April’s estimate.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 209,000 in June. The unemployment rate changed little at 3.6%, and the number of unemployed persons was mostly flat at 6.0 million.

Employment in Canada in June increased by 60,000, or 0.3%, following little change in May. The increase was the largest since January. Employment growth had moderated from February to May.

Redfin reported that the average US sale-to-list price ratio surpassed 100% for the first time in nearly a year during four-week period ending July 2nd.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, mortgage loan application volume fell 4.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. The results include an adjustment for the Juneteenth holiday.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.81%, up from last week when it averaged 6.71%. A year ago at this time, the 30-year rate averaged 5.30%.

According to the ADP® National Employment Report™, nonfarm private sector employment increased by 497,000 jobs in June and annual pay was up 6.4% year-over-year.

According to the JOLTS report, as of the last business day in May, the number of job openings and rate decreased to 9.8 million—down 496,000, or 0.3%. This offsets a similar size increase in April.

US-based employers announced 40,70 job cuts in June. This is down 49% from the 80,089 job cuts announced in May; however, it is up 25% from the 32,517 job cuts announced in June 2022.

The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 248,000 during the week ending on Saturday, July 30th. This is an increase of 12,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 236,000.