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Reference: Wells Fargo

JOLTS Shows No Sign of Cooling Labor Market. The December Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report gave little indication of the labor market cooling heading into 2016. Job openings rose to 5.6 million at the end of December, an increase of 261,000 after November’s openings were revised lower. The rise brings the job opening rate back up to a series high of 3.8 percent.

After moving sideways for the better part of 2015, turnover showed some encouraging signs of picking up in the final month of the year. Total separations increased by 110,000 in December, with a more favorable mix toward voluntary separations.

Layoffs and discharges edged down in December and are 2.3 percent lower than a year earlier. The drop brings the JOLTS measure of involuntary separations more closely in line with initial jobless claims and should temper some concern about the more recent uptick in claims.

Quits jumped by 196,000, bringing the quit rate up to 2.1 percent—the highest rate of the current expansion. The number of workers quitting their job has now surpassed the level of December 2007, when the recession first started. The pickup in quits reflects workers feeling additional job opportunities are more widely available. The rise should offer some support to the paltry pace of wage growth registered in the current expansion, as job switching is an important source of an individual’s wage growth.

The yield on Japan’s benchmark 10-year government bonds fell below zero for the first time, an unprecedented level for a Group-of-Seven economy, as global financial turmoil and the Bank of Japan’s adoption of negative interest rates drive demand for the notes.