Employers advertised 6.6 million job openings in March, the Department of Labor reported Tuesday, the highest such number since they began keeping track in 2000.
The private sector drove the new record. Private employers advertised 5.9 million vacancies in the month, about 200,000 more than the previous high, with the construction sector particularly strong.
Actual hiring was not quite as strong. Altogether, 5.4 million people were hired in March, about in line with hiring over the past year.
But other details from the report were encouraging, and reassuring that the jobs recovery still has momentum and is making the market more favorable to job seekers.
“The labor market is literally on fire it is so hot with job openings the greatest in history,” noted Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist for MUFG.
Tuesday’s jobs data come from Labor’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, a data set that reveals gross hiring and firing. It lags the more prominent payroll jobs report by a month, but is prized by the Federal Reserve and investors because of the granular data it provides on the labor market.
The labor market is getting much better for workers. There was just one unemployed worker for every advertised job opening, according to the report, a new historic low.
In comparison, there were nearly seven jobless workers for every opening during the worst days of the financial crisis.
Another bright spot in Tuesday’s report was that 3.34 million workers quit their jobs in March, more than at any point during the recovery. Quitting is viewed as a good sign for the economy overall, because it suggests that workers are confident enough in their prospects to give up a job.
