April may have only seen 266k jobs created, but at the end of March there were a record number of job openings, according to the latest data from the Burea of Labor Statics (BLS)
- On the final day of business of March the number of job openings reached 8.1 million.
- This is the highest number seen since data tracking started in 2000.
Hiring was pretty much unchanged in March at 6.0 million and 4.2 percent, respectively
THE PROBLEM: The 8.1 million number was up 597,000 from last month’s revised 7.53 million. This means 597k new jobs were open, but only 226 jobs were actually filled, according to April’s jobs report.
- This leads us back to last week’s question. Why are so few jobs actually being filled? Is it too generous unemployment, wages too low, safety concerns, or school closures? Or is it all of the above?