Job openings hit a record high of 6.7 million in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday.
That was the most advertised vacancies since the agency started keeping track in 2000.
As a result, job openings outnumbered unemployed workers in the month, a high-water mark for job-seekers that hasnât been seen in decades. In comparison, there were more than six jobless workers per open job during the worst of the recession.
“This labor market is a headhunters dream as no company can hire the skilled or unskilled workers they need without an employment agency working for them 24/7 scouring the country for anyone they can find,” remarked Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist for MUFG.
Tuesdayâs numbers come from the bureauâs monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, which is separate from the monthly payroll jobs report. JOLTS, as it is known, is valued by policymakers and investors because of the details it contains on the jobs market, including hiring and firing.
The report’s impressive statistics will help reassure Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell and others at the central bank that the economy is set keep improving in the months ahead, making it appropriate to continue raising interest rates and tightening monetary policy.
The private sector drove growth in job openings in April, with private job openings also at a record high of 6.1 million.
Actual hiring was not quite as strong. Altogether, 5.6 million workers were hired in the month, near the highest levels of the recovery but not quite at the same historic levels that openings have set.
[Related: US unemployment rate ties lowest level in nearly 50 years]
