Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Jobs rise to 11.5 million in March
Record 4.5 million Americans quit adding to wage squeeze
U. S. employers saw record levels of job openings and workers quitting in March, pointing to intensifying labor-market tightness that will keep pushing wages higher at a rapid clip.
The number of available positions increased to 11.5 million in the month from 11.3 million in February, the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, showed Tuesday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 11.2 million openings.
Meantime, a series high of 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in March, in data back to 2000. The quits rate, a measure of voluntary job leavers as a share of total employment, rose slightly to 3%.
The vacancy figures suggest that employers’ needs for workers remained strong in March as employers staff up to meet solid consumer demand for goods and services.
Businesses are also still struggling to recruit qualified workers, which has put upward pressure on wages and led to a surge in job openings.
There were 1.9 jobs for every unemployed worker in March, up from February. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has pointed to that figure as an indication of the tightness in the American labor market. Combined with soaring inflation, the data reinforces expectations that the central bank will be more aggressive with their monetary policy tightening in upcoming meetings, starting today.
The U. S. job market is on a hot streak. Employers have added an average of more than 540,000 jobs a month for the past year. The Labor Department is expected to report Friday that the
economy generated another 400,000 new jobs in April, according to a survey by the data firm FactSet. That would mark an unprecedented 12th straight month that hiring has come in at 400,000 or more.
The increase in job openings was driven by retail trade and durable goods manufacturing. That echoes data from the Institute for Supply Management Monday, which found that manufacturers are still struggling to solve labor shortage issues.
Vacancies decreased in transportation, warehousing, and utilities; state and local government education; and accommodation and food services.
Quits increased in professional and business services and construction, the JOLTS data showed.
While staffing has improved for some companies, many continue to point to challenges on earnings calls.
Domino’s Pizza Inc. said last week that when adding up all of the lost operating hours in the first quarter, U.S. stores were cumulatively closed for the equivalent of almost six days.
“Employees have strong job security and confidence in their ability to find new work,” said Nick Bunker, economic research director at Indeed Inc. “The labor market is still very much a job seeker’s market. Something dramatic will have to happen for this to change anytime soon.”
Hires were little changed at 6.7 million in March. By industry, leisure and hospitality rose.
Despite strong hiring, the United States is still 1.6 million short of the jobs it had in February 2020, just before the coronavirus hit the economy; and that shortfall does not take into account the additional jobs that should have been added by a growing population.