U.S. employers advertised fewer jobs in July but hired more workers, a mixed sign that suggests only modest improvement in the job market.
Job openings fell 180,000 in July to 3.7 million, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That’s down from 3.9 million the previous month, which was revised lower.
Overall hiring increased to 4.4 million, up from 4.3 million in June and 4.17 million a year ago. Still, hiring has fluctuated in recent months and remains below the 5 million pace before the recession.
Layoffs dropped to 1.5 million, the lowest level on records dating back to 2001.
The latest data on job openings and turnover in the workforce reaffirmed the painfully slow but steady progress taking place over the past three years. The economy is adding jobs. But much of the improvement has come from a drop in layoffs — not rapid hiring. ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUTO INDUSTRY
Nissan Rogue gets revamped
Nissan Motor Co. says its revamped Rogue SUV will be cheaper and more fuel-efficient than its rivals when it goes on sale in the U.S. in November.
Nissan unveiled the 2014 Rogue Tuesday at its North American technical center near Detroit. The Rogue’s European counterpart, the X-Train, was revealed at the same time at the Frankfurt Auto Show in Germany. The X-Train goes on sale early next year.
The Rogue, which is Nissan’s second best-selling vehicle in the U.S. after the Altima sedan, was last redesigned in 2008. It was badly in need of an upgrade after newer models from Honda, Ford and others went on sale. The small SUV segment is one of the fastest growing in the U.S., with sales up 60 percent since 2009.
Nissan says the new Rogue will get an estimated 33 miles per gallon on the highway, a 20 percent increase over the outgoing model. That beats its rivals in the highly competitive small SUV segment, including the Honda CR-V, Ford Escape and Toyota RAV4. ASSOCIATED PRESS
WALL STREET
Three-company switch made on major stock market index
The barometer of America's stock market — the Dow Jones industrial average — is getting a makeover.
Alcoa, Bank of America, and Hewlett-Packard are being dropped from the index of America’s 30 top companies and replaced by Goldman Sachs, Nike, and Visa.
It's the index's biggest change in almost a decade. Dow will make the switches, which take effect Sept. 23, because of the falling stock prices of the removed companies and a need to more accurately represent the economy. ASSOCIATED PRESS
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