US Job Openings Hovering Near Record Highs In February - Labor Department

US Job Openings Hovering Near Record Highs in February - Labor Department

US job openings hovered near record highs in February as vacancies continued to outpace hires in a labor market that remained overwhelmingly in favor of workers, the government's monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS) showed on Tuesday

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th March, 2022) US job openings hovered near record highs in February as vacancies continued to outpace hires in a labor market that remained overwhelmingly in favor of workers, the government's monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS) showed on Tuesday.

"The number of job openings was little changed at 11.3 million on the last business day of February," the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a unit within the Labor Department, said in its monthly update on the JOLTS numbers.

Job openings hit a record high of 11.4 million in December. The gap between hires and job openings had grown steadily for months, with positions filled rising by 263,000 to 6.7 million in February versus the 11.3 million in openings.

Joblessness among Americans reached a record high of 14.8% in April 2020, with the loss of some 20 million jobs in the aftermath of the coronavirus breakout. Jobs recovery has, however, been stellar over the past year, with the jobless rate moving down to 3.8%. A jobless rate of 4% or below is regarded by the Fed as maximum employment.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said earlier this month that the labor market was "extremely tight" with robust demand and subdued supply. He also noted that more than a million positions were filled within the first two months of the year due to robust economic growth. The economy grew 5.7% in 2021, expanding at its fastest pace in four decades, after a 3.5% contraction in 2020 from coronavirus-related disruptions.

Aside from ramping job numbers, the United States is experiencing one of the greatest transformations of its employment market as COVID-19 measures upended labor supply and work trends, putting employees' demands above those of employers.

The JOLTS report came ahead of Friday's all-important US non-farm payrolls report for March from the Labor Department, which is expected to cite a jobs growth of 490,000 and an unemployment rate of 3.7%.