Job openings rise to highest level in 16 months
June 8, 2010 The number of jobs advertised at the end of April rose to 3.1
million from 2.8 million in March, the Labor Department said
Tuesday. That's the most openings since December 2008.
Private employers accounted for the entire net gain. The
government's advertising for jobs decreased, despite the hiring of
hundreds of thousands of census workers in May.
The department's report, known as the Job Openings and Labor
Turnover survey, or JOLTS, follows a disappointing employment
report Friday that found private employers added only 41,000 jobs
in May. Temporary census hiring accounted for 411,000 jobs. The
unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent in April.
The rise in job openings "makes you a little more upbeat about
the labor market," said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at
JPMorgan Chase.
Job openings have risen by about 740,000 since bottoming out at
2.3 million in July. But they remain far below pre-recession levels
of about 4.5 million openings per month.
The competition for jobs remains tough. There were 5 unemployed
people, on average, for each job opening in April. That's down from
5.4 in the previous month, but well above pre-recession levels of
1.8 jobless workers per opening.
The biggest increases in available jobs were in professional and
business services, leisure and hospitality and education and health
services. Government job openings fell by 36,000.
The report also found that the number of people quitting jobs
topped total layoffs for the third straight month. Nearly 2 million
people quit their jobs in April, an increase of about 130,000 in
the past two months. An increasing number of people voluntarily
leaving jobs is a sign of confidence in the employment market,
economists say. Workers are less likely to cling to their jobs if
they believe others are available.
Other surveys also show that companies are likely to increase
hiring, though at a slow pace. Staffing company Manpower Inc. said
Tuesday that its quarterly employment outlook found more employers
are planning to hire in the July-to-September quarter than the
preceding three months.
Manpower said its employment index rose to a seasonally adjusted
6 percent, a point higher than in the March-to-June period. The
index was at -2 a year ago, meaning more employers planned to cut
jobs than hire. The survey covers 18,000 private and government
entities.
Separately, the National Federation of Independent Business said
Tuesday that its small business optimism index rose to 92.2. That's
the highest level since September 2008, when Lehman Brothers
collapsed and the financial crisis intensified. But that's still
below the index's long-run average of 99, according to Paul Dales,
an economist at Capital Economics.
The NFIB's employment index rose to 1, the first positive
reading in 19 months. It suggests more small businesses plan to add
workers than cut them.
The reports come after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
said late Monday that the recovery will continue "but it won't
feel terrific." That's because economic growth won't be robust
enough to quickly drive down the unemployment rate, now at 9.7
percent, he said in remarks to the Woodrow Wilson International
Center for Scholars, a nonpartisan research group.
More job openings added to the picture of a slow but steady
recovery.
A monthly analysis by the Associated Press of conditions around
the country showed that manufacturing job gains in the Midwest
helped lower the nation's economic stress in April to its lowest
point in five months. Economic stress levels dipped in every state
except Louisiana and Nevada in April.