Job openings hit lowest level in 2 years as demand for workers cools

Published

2 years ago

August 7, 2023

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US employers posted fewer jobs in June, a sign that thered-hot demand for workersthat has been a key feature of the post-pandemic economy is cooling a bit.

Job openings dropped to 9.6 million in June, the Labor Department said Tuesday, down slightly from the previous month but much lower than the 10.3 million in April and the fewest in more than two years.

The governments report also showed that the number of people who quit their jobs in June fell sharply to 3.8 million from 4.1 million, another sign the job market is slowing.

The Federal Reserve is seeking to cool the job market, because if companies are less desperate to hire, and fewer workers are quitting to seek higher-paying positions elsewhere, then businesses will be under less pressure to raise pay to find and keep workers.

Smaller pay hikes could help lower inflation, since businesses wont have to lift their prices to offset higher labor costs.

Tuesdays report means there are 1.6 jobs for every unemployed worker, down from a peak of 1.9 earlier this year, though still higher than before the pandemic.

On Friday, the government is set to release the July jobs report, which will show how many positions were added in July and whether the unemployment rate fell below its current level of 3.6%, which is near the lowest in a half-century.

Economists forecast the report will show a gain of 200,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate unchanged, according to a survey by data provider FactSet.

Since the economy first emerged from the pandemic, job openings have soared reaching a record 12 million in March 2022.

Before the pandemic, they had never topped 7.6 million.

Average paychecks rose by 4.6% in the April-June quarter compared to a year earlier, above the pre-pandemic pace of about 3%.

While thats great for workers, the Fed worries that unless companies become more productive, such increases are too high to get inflation to its 2% target.

The Fed last week lifted its key short-term rate for the 11th time in 17 months as part of its ongoing efforts to curb inflation, which is currently at 3%.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, however, according to the Feds preferred measure, it rose 4.1% compared with a year ago.

Most economists would have expected such a sharp increase in interest rates to force widespread layoffs and higher unemployment.

Instead, the unemployment rate has barely changed since the Fed began pushing up borrowing costs last year.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has long held out hope that the higher rates, instead of leading to more layoffs, would simply cause employers to post fewer openings.

At a press conference last week, Powell said that the job market has softened, which should help bring down inflation, through job openings coming down part of the way back to more normal levels.

Typically, when job openings decline, companies also start to lay off workers and push up the unemployment rate.

But so far, thats not happening. Tuesdays report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, showed that layoffs actually declined in June, to 1.53 million, down from 1.57 million in May.

That is below pre-pandemic trends and suggests companies generally want to hold onto their staffs.

Entertainment

Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sells for £180m at auction, a record for modern art

Published

2 hours ago

November 19, 2025

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Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sells for £180m at auction, a record for modern art

A painting that helped save the life of its Jewish subject during the Holocaust has become the most expensive piece of modern art and the second most expensive painting ever sold at auction.

The Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, was bought for $236.4m (£180m) by an unnamed buyer after a 20-minute bidding war at Sotheby’s in New York on Tuesday.

Its sale price beat the previous record for 20th-century art set by Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, a portrait of Marilyn Monroe bought for $195m (£148m) in 2022.

The most expensive painting ever sold at auction was Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which fetched $450m (£342m) in 2017, Christie’s said on its website.

Sotheby’s said on X the price for the Klimt was “astonishing”, making the piece “the most valuable work of modern art ever sold at auction”.

The portrait, which Klimt worked on between 1914 and 1916, depicts the daughter of one of Vienna’s wealthiest families wearing an East Asian emperor’s cloak.

Evaded fire and Nazi looters

Measuring 1.8m (6ft), the colourful piece, which was completed in 1916, illustrates the Lederer family’s life of luxury before Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938.

It was kept separate from other Klimt paintings that burned in a fire at an Austrian castle.

It also escaped being looted by the Nazis, who plundered the Lederer art collection.

They left only the family portraits, which they held to be “too Jewish” to be worth stealing, according to the National Gallery of Canada, where the painting was previously on loan.

Father lie saved her life

To save her own life, Elisabeth Lederer made up a story that Klimt, who was not Jewish and died in 1918, was her father.

It helped that the artist spent years working meticulously on her portrait.

She convinced the Nazis to give her a document stating that she descended from Klimt, which allowed her to live safely in Vienna until her death from illness in 1944.

The painting, which is one of two full-length portraits by the Austrian artist that remain privately owned, was part of the collection of billionaire Leonard A Lauder, heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics empire, who died this year.

Five Klimt pieces from Lauder’s collection sold at the auction for a total of $392m (£298m), which also included pieces by Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse and Edvard Munch, Sotheby’s said.

An 18-carat-gold toilet by Maurizio Cattelan – the provocative Italian artist known for taping a banana to a wall – sold for a reported $12.1m (£9.2m).

The fully-functioning toilet, one of two he created in 2016 satirising superwealth, was stolen while on display at Blenheim Palace, the country manor where Winston Churchill was born, in 2019.

Two men were convicted of the theft, but it’s unclear what they did with the loo.

Investigators believe it was likely broken up and melted down.

Politics

New Hampshire approves first-of-its-kind $100M Bitcoin-backed municipal bond

Published

3 hours ago

November 19, 2025

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New Hampshire approves first-of-its-kind 0M Bitcoin-backed municipal bond

New Hampshire has approved the issuance of a $100 million municipal bond backed by Bitcoin, in what appears to be the first structure of its kind at the US state level.

Minutes from a Nov. 17 meeting of the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority (BFA), the state’s business financing agency, show the board planned “to consider approving a resolution authorizing up to $100,000,000 bonds for a project to acquire and hold digital currency.”

Minutes from the following day record that directors voted to “approve the preliminary official intent, with no reservation, to issue a taxable conduit revenue bond for WaveRose Depositor, LLC of up to $100,000,000.”

According to a Wednesday Crypto in America report, the bond is backed by Bitcoin (BTC) and would let companies borrow against overcollateralized BTC held by a private custodian. The state or taxpayers do not back the bond; instead, BFA approves and oversees a private deal, while Bitcoin — reportedly held in custody by BitGo — covers investors.

According to the report, asset manager Wave Digital Assets and bond specialist Rosemawr Management designed the bond to utilize Bitcoin as collateral under the same rules that govern municipal and corporate bonds. Wave co-founder Les Borsai said the goal is to “bridge traditional fixed income with digital assets” for institutional investors.

New Hampshire, United States — *The New Hampshire State House in Concord. Source:* *Wikimedia*

“We believe this structure shows how public and private sectors can collaborate to responsibly unlock the value of digital assets and digital asset reserves,” he added.

The borrower is expected to post approximately 160% of the bond’s value in Bitcoin as collateral, and if the price of BTC drops below roughly 130%, a liquidation would ensure that bondholders stay whole. According to BFA Executive Director James Key-Wallace, fees from the transaction will fund the local innovation and entrepreneurship program, the Bitcoin Economic Development Fund.

New Hampshire dives headfirst into crypto

The news follows New Hampshire becoming the first US state to allow its government to invest in cryptocurrencies in May after Governor Kelly Ayotte signed a bill allowing the municipality to “invest in cryptocurrency and precious metals.”

New Hampshire is also working on a bill to deregulate local cryptocurrency mining operations. In late October, a committee voted 4–2 to send the measure for further review in an interim study after it had been deadlocked in the State Senate twice.

The local administration is viewed as particularly welcoming to the cryptocurrency industry. In early February, Brendan Cochrane, an Anti-Money Laundering specialist at YK Law in New York City, argued that it could become an alternative for crypto companies relocating to the Bahamas.

The latest moves build on a longer history of crypto engagement. Back in 2015, New Hampshire was already working on a bill that would have allowed the state government to accept tax and fee payments in Bitcoin.

The bill ultimately failed in 2016, but it shows how early the local administration began to show interest in this asset class. Additionally, as early as 2016, some advocates were already arguing that New Hampshire was among the world’s most Bitcoin-friendly communities.