There were 9.582 million job vacancies across the US economy on the last business day of June, key data released on Tuesday showed.

That was only slightly fewer than the downwardly revised 9.616 million unfilled positions that existed at the close of business the previous month.

Happily for the soft landing narrative, the revision to May’s headline print was roughly as large as the drop consensus expected for June. So, total job openings were actually lower than they would’ve been if May’s print were left unrevised and June’s drop matched estimates.

Whether all’s well that ends well in that regard is a matter for markets to adjudicate. Ultimately, openings were the fewest since April of 2021, right around the time inflation really took off in the US.

Hires fell materially from May’s mostly unchanged level. That left the gap wider, not the best news if “normalization” everywhere and always has to mean a narrower spread.

Conceivably, you could argue that fewer hires is better at this point, although the ideal scenario is obviously steady hiring and fewer openings.

It was certainly good news that quits fell. After jumping back above four million in May, the number of people who voluntarily separated themselves from their erstwhile employers fell to 3.772 million.

That’s still very high, but it’s directionally “correct.” The quit rate fell back to April’s 2.4, the lowest in more than two years.

Layoffs and discharges fell, remaining near historic lows. The same was true of the rate, which loitered at 1.0. The record low was 0.9, a level that persisted in May and June of 2021, and every month from October of 2021 through April of 2022 (and a couple of other months besides).

Using the new JOLTS print, the ratio watched by the Fed (openings to the number of Americans counted as officially unemployed) fell to 1.57, the lowest since October of 2021.

There’s still a lot of work to do there, which is actually a good thing assuming you believe it’s going to get done. That ratio is one way of capturing the scope for JOLTS to shoulder the burden of a soft landing.

So, what’s the takeaway? Well, with today’s revisions, May’s headline drop in openings counts as the largest since last August. If you consider that a mitigating factor for the meaningful drop in hires, and pair it with fewer quits, I suppose you could MacGyver a soft landing story.

Again, it’s up to “efficient” markets, in their infinite wisdom, to adjudicate the issue.