In March, job openings in the United States surged to the highest level since the Department of Labor began recording data on this metric. This is a clear indication that companies are keen on hiring workers even as the economy enjoys a nine-year long growth phase after the Great Recession. The report was also in sync with last week's monthly jobs report, which indicated that employee demand remains resilient.
Also, while growth in average hourly earnings has been largely sluggish, other gauges of wage growth have reported encouraging numbers. And now with a job opportunity available for every unemployed individual, the labor market is at its strongest since the economic recovery began. With labor demand likely to remain high, investing in staffing stocks looks like a strong option at this point.
Job Openings Surge to Series High
According to the Labor Department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, job openings increased from 6.1 million to 6.6 million in March. This is the highest level recorded since the survey was first conducted in December 2000. The largest increase in jobs openings was experienced in professional and business services with vacancies rising by 112,000.
Meanwhile, the construction industry sought out 68,000 more workers while job openings for transportation, utilities and warehousing increased by 37,000. Around 5.4 million individuals were recruited while 5.3 million had to lose employment. The number of people voluntarily giving up their jobs increased to 3.3 million. Also, the percentage of such individuals, also known as the quits rate, increased to 2.5%, in line with a post-recession high.
Labor Market Remains Resilient
The report on job openings was in keeping with other data on jobs released recently. According to date released last week, the unemployment rate declined from 4.1% in March to 3.9% in April, the lowest level in nearly 18 years. This pace was also marginally higher than the federal reserve's targeted rate of 3.8%. This is the first time in six months that the unemployment rate has undergone a decline.
