You and I can have a legitimate debate about the good and bad of employment trends in manufacturing. And we can legitimately debate the quality of jobs available across all sectors. But, frankly, there’s no debating the fact that the U.S. economy is in no way shape or form wanting for job opportunities.
The problem is that we literally have more jobs to fill than we have available workers to fill them!
JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Report)
Released On 4/13/2018 10:00:00 AM For Feb, 2018
Highlights
Job openings fell back 2.8 percent in February to 6.052 million but still remain well out in front of hirings which fell 1.2 percent to 5.507 million. Year-on-year, openings are up 7.7 percent vs only a 4.6 percent rise for hirings.
The 0.545 million gap between openings and hirings is very wide and hints at full employment, that is there are more jobs than workers. And employers aren’t taking any risks with the workers they have, evidenced by separations which fell 2.4 percent to 5.192 million.
Lack of available labor could be an increasing factor that holds back business expansion. Useful comparisons for this report are the 6.585 million unemployed actively looking for work and the 11.681 million in the total available labor pool.