Job openings soar to record high

Employers may face pressure to raise pay

WASHINGTON – U.S. employers sharply ramped up their demand for workers in January, advertising 6.3 million jobs at the end of the month, the most on records dating back 17 years.

The number of job openings soared 645,000 in January, the Labor Department said Friday – the largest onemonth increase in 21⁄2 years. The number of people hired ticked up, and fewer Americans quit in January compared with the previous month.

The huge demand comes as the unemployment rate is at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. The report shows that overall hiring increased by a much smaller amount than job openings, suggesting that employers are having difficulty finding the workers they need. That may raise pressure on companies to increase pay to attract more applicants.

The data could fuel debates about whether a “skills gap” has made it harder for companies to fill open positions. Business groups argue that many jobs – particularly in manufacturing, administrative work and information technology – require greater or different skill sets than in the past, and not enough workers have them.

Some economists respond that businesses should offer higher wages if they are truly desperate for more employees. Americans’ paychecks have picked up a bit in recent years, but by most measures the gains are still sluggish.

The report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, shows that job openings surged nearly 16 percent in January compared with a year earlier. Yet the number of jobs getting filled rose 2.3 percent, to 5.6 million.

In a study released this week, Burning Glass, a labor market analytics firm, found that skills gaps exist in some specific occupations and industries, but for different reasons.

In information technology, for example, there are 17 percent more jobs open than there are available workers, Burning Glass calculated. That’s partly because demand in relatively new fields, such as cybersecurity and “big data” analysis, has exploded in recent years. Meanwhile, training programs have been slow to ramp up and teach the new, complex skills needed.