(Kitco News) - Although under pressure, the gold market is off its session lows as it sees some buying momentum following relatively in line employment data.
Job openings, a measure of labor demand, dropped to 8.79 million as of the last day of November, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Tuesday.
According to consensus estimates, economists were looking for job openings to drop to around 8.84 million, down from October’s revised level of 8.85 million.
The report noted that job openings are down sharply from the March 2022 record high of 12 million.
While the gold market is seeing solid technical selling pressure, the latest employment data is providing some support for prices. Spot gold last traded at $2,046.70 an ounce, down 0.57% on the day.
Although the latest employment data fell in line with expectations, economists note that the report continues to highlight slowing momentum in the U.S. labor market, which will give the Federal Reserve room to ease interest rates later this year.
The U.S. central bank has been clear that it needs to see some slack in the labor market before it considers easing interest rates.
