Job openings set new record of 9.3 million in April

Job openings in April soared to a record 9.3 million as the economy rapidly recovered from its pandemic depths.

The standard set in April was well above the 8.3 million in March that itself was a new high going back to 2000 for the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

Federal Reserve policymakers closely watch the JOLTS numbers for indications of labor market slack, though they run a month behind the more widely publicized nonfarm payrolls count.

Markets had been looking for a JOLTS number around 8.18 million, according to FactSet. The total openings for the month was just below the total considered unemployed.

Job availability surged 32.7% in leisure and hospitality, the sector hurt most by the pandemic lockdowns.

The big jump in job openings came during a month when hiring disappointed. Payrolls increased by just 278,000 at a time when economists had been looking for growth of around 1 million.

However, the Labor Department has struggled with seasonal adjustments compounded by the uniqueness of the virus situation, and the JOLTS numbers indicated that the jobs market is poised for continued strong growth.

One big challenge for employers is finding available labor. Child-care issues, ongoing fears about the pandemic and the lure of enhanced unemployment benefits have kept the unemployment rolls at 9.8 million, about 3.6 million higher than before the pandemic. That level fell to 9.3 million in May, about in line with the job openings.

The hire rate for April remained subdued at 69,000, or an unchanged 4.2% from the previous month.

Quits, which are seen as a gauge of worker confidence that they can find other employment, rose considerably, to 3.95 million. That represented growth of 384,000, an increase of 10.8% that took the quits rate as a share of the labor force up to a record 2.7% from 2.5%.

Retail saw a particularly sharp rise in quits up to 4.3% from 3.6%.

Total separations increased to 5.76 million, a gain of 324,000 that took the rate up to 4% from 3.8%. Layoffs and discharges edged lower to 1%, also a JOLTS low.

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[youtubesucks]

Yeah you can keep your trash can jobs. I’m out.

[txbre]

this is my own experience with my peers who were in the hospitality industry. They left to get retrained, went back to school (trade and university), and got better jobs.

In fact a lot of them actually went into blue collar work during pandemic and made bank.

The second fact is that childcare is still rocky because 1, ) rising costs in daycare are making mom’s rethink working because if it’s the same cost as your income - what’s the point? Just stay home until kids are old enough.

3.) my own brother left the restaurant industry and got trained as a mechanic and he loves his new job now. He got a ton of certs & became an apprentice. He loves it. He’s still in training to be a master mechanic but this is just one example of pivoting.

Lastly, there are some skilled workers taking vacations and time off before heading back. Which is needed. Also, we had 600, 000 Americans die - which left more job openings.

I wish the problem was as simple as “just cut unemployment!”. It’s not and it won’t be. It’s going to be transitory for a bit until we recover.

[findingmo]

It’s simple:

1. Foreign workers are NOT taking some seasonal jobs because they CAN’T come into the country (Exhibit A: Canada US border is still closed).

2. 600k known deaths of covid, the actual number could be more. Many of them had jobs.

3. Generous Unemployment is still active. Will remain active until September for half the states.

4. Population plateaued. We have fewer teens than in recent years, and that trend will continue to go down as less kids are born.

5. Childcare and it’s cost during the pandemic. More parents looking after kids or their old parents.

6. Stock market still going up. More 401k millionaires, more early retirement. Not to mention meme stock millionaires going to the moon.

7. Rich corporations need more unskilled jobs. Guess what? The pool of unskilled jobs is not infinitely expanding. There is a huge overhang now, specially with online shopping. Amazon stopped doing drug tests last week to compensate for it.

8. Employers have started to require vaccinations to get a job. Delta and United to name a few.

9. Our consumption is growing through technology and most of it through our smart phones. Banking industry will downsize 200k jobs by 2030. AI is cheaper labor than humans.

10. Every company is experiencing a bent up demand, almost all at the same time. Creating a record number of open jobs. McDonalds need 10k jobs just this summer. Kroger is hiring 10k people, etc. multiply these numbers by a factor of 1, 000+, and it’s impossible for those employers to fill jobs.

[tylerking]

Nobody is working just watching GME go up lmayo

[ikm]

Hope you're not going to tell the boys in Fox...they're still getting therapy on the election results...

[johnbartholf]

Millions of jobs.
Trump: You're welcome.
Biden: We have to stop this madness!

[_kronos_]

BUY PSFE now great price. Hold CLOV to over 80 a share for the squeeze. 💥💫🦍🦍🦩🦜🦆🦆 BIDU is cheap too. Its ok and good to have 10 or more stocks. Fubo will go to 60.00 this year.

[goatspooprainbows]

Maybe people want to go on vacation before they go back to work so this could potentially just be transitory