Number of US job vacancies hits record level as firms struggle to hire quick enough
The number of US job openings rose to its highest ever level in April, new figures from the Department for Labor Statistics revealed today, as businesses scrap for workers as economy reopens.
According to the figures, there were 9.3m available positions as of the last day of the month, up nearly 1m from March.
That’s the highest number of vacancies since figures began to be collected in 2000.
Chris Beauchamp, Chief Market Analyst at IG, said: “If today’s JOLTS numbers in the US aren’t an indication of an economy that is rebounding strongly then it is hard to know what is.”
However, the update failed to shift US markets, with stocks showing limited gains thus far today.
Despite the huge demand for workers, the shortfall between vacancies and the actual number of hires made was also the largest it has ever been.
The number of hires remained at 6.1m, little changed from the previous month, the figures showed.
The gap suggests that despite fierce demand, firms are still struggling to fill vacancies in the workforce. Some have taken to offering potential employees bonuses and extra perks to secure their services.
That, it seems, has also hit small business confidence, which declined for the first time in four months today.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Optimism Index fell 0.2 point to a reading of 99.6 in May after three straight monthly increases.
“If small business owners could hire more workers to take care of customers, sales would be higher and getting closer to pre-Covid levels,” NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg said in a statement.
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