US IN A HIRE GEAR
Newly available jobs setting record
It’s official: jobs are popping up all over the US.
There were 7.34 million job openings across the US on the last day of 2018 — their highest level since the Labor Department began collecting the numbers in 2000, the agency said Tuesday.
Not only did the latest figures blow past the August 2018 record of 7.29 million, they also far outstripped the 6.3 million that were listed as unemployed in December.
Indeed, job openings have exceeded the ranks of unemployed for the past 10 months straight, signaling that companies may have to boost wages in order to snag workers.
“Employers can only hold off for so long on wage growth,” said Jared Bernstein, former chief economist and economic adviser to former Vice President Joe Biden. “It’s a luxury they may not be able to afford much longer.”
The uptick in jobs openings also suggests that employers have shaken off worries spurred by slowing global growth and tariffs, which weighed on the stock market in the last few weeks of 2018.
The good news is also coming despite a 35-day government shutdown that began Dec. 22, leaving 800,000 federal workers without paychecks. Some economists predicted the shutdown would be a drag on gross domestic product, but the Labor Department earlier this month said the US economy added a staggering 304,000 jobs in January, the most in nearly a year.
Separately Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he didn’t believe the risk of a US recession “is at all elevated.”
Data released by Gallup on Monday showed that 69 percent of Americans expect to be financially better off at this time next year, marking a 16year high for financial optimism. And 50 percent of the US feels financially better off than they were a year ago — the first time since before the financial crisis that half the country felt better about their finances.
Separately on Tuesday, however, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said total household debt rose by $32 billion, to $13.54 trillion, during the fourth quarter of 2018, blowing past the pre-recession peak of $12.68 trillion during the third quarter of 2008, data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed Tuesday.
Chief contributors to the growing household debt levels was a $26 billion increase in credit card balances, followed by jumps in student and auto loan balances of $15 billion and $9 billion, respectively.
The NY Fed said the uptick in credit card balances was “consistent” with seasonal trends but ominously noted that the balances were approaching 2008 peaks.