In April, businesses hired 5.9 million employees, the highest on record. Despite filling so many positions, there are still more jobs available than unemployed workers to fill them. You can see on my chart the demand for employees has been higher than the number of unemployed Americans since March of 2018.
Bloomberg’s Jeff Cox reports on the strong numbers for the economy:
“In sum, the labor market remains strong and poised for continued solid job growth,” Ward McCarthy, chief financial U.S. economist at Jefferies, said in a note. “Despite the 21.4 [million] private sector jobs that have been generated to-date this cycle, the private business sector continues to generate a very strong demand for labor that is evidenced by the very large number of job openings that business wants to fill. The biggest threat to job growth is available supply, not demand for labor.”
Separations increased by 70,000 to 5.58 million, a rate of 3.7%, which was unchanged from March.
The JOLTS data lags other employment indicators by a month but is nonetheless watched closely by the White House and the Federal Reserve as an indicator of labor market slack. A large number of available workers compared with job openings would indicate a tight market in which wages should be rising.
The more widely watched nonfarm payrolls report measures the amount of workers hired compared with the jobs lost.
The quits level also rose for the month, up 21,000 to 3.48 million for a rate of 2.3%, which was unchanged on the month and up one-tenth from a year ago. The reading is considered a good gauge of worker confidence as people feel comfortable leaving their current positions for better opportunities.
Read more here.
As the economy roars, it is important to remember to put away some savings. It’s easy to assume the good times will go on forever, but as you can see my post from last week, America’s business cycle is one of creation and destruction. Remember to prepare your family to survive a market downturn.
