U.S. job openings fell less than expected in May, pointing to a still tight labor market that could keep the Federal Reserve on an aggressive monetary policy path as it battles high inflation, Reuters reported. Though a survey from the Institute for Supply Management on Wednesday showed its measure of services sector employment contracted in June for the third time in the last five months, businesses complained they were "unable to fill positions with qualified applicants," and that "demand for talent is higher." The Fed is trying to cool demand for labor and the overall economy to bring inflation down to its 2% target. Job openings, a measure of labor demand, dropped 427,000 to 11.3 million on the last day of May, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report. It was the second straight monthly decline in job openings after a record high of 11.9 million in March. The decrease in vacancies was led by professional and business services, with 325,000 fewer job openings. Job openings at manufacturers of long-lasting goods dropped 138,000, while there were 70,000 fewer unfilled positions in the nondurable goods manufacturing industry.
