U.S. Job Openings Hit All-Time High as Layoffs Drop to 3-Year Low

[SunSeeker]

Source: US New & World Report

The number of vacant positions in the U.S. labor market climbed to an all-time high in July, according to a report published Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

American employers were looking to fill nearly 5.9 million open jobs that month – a notable gain from June's 5.6 million vacancies. The month of July over the last few years has shaped up to be a strong one for openings, as July 2015's tally of 5.79 million vacancies held the previous record.

Openings were spread widely across sectors, with typically well-paying professional and business services employers and health care outfits looking to recruit 1.27 million and 962,000 new workers, respectively. Retail trade and leisure and hospitality companies, meanwhile, were looking to fill 627,000 and 763,000 positions, respectively.

Read more: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-07/us-job-openings-hit-all-time-high-as-layoffs-drop-to-3-year-low

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Good news for the US is bad news for Trump.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

1. The DU Eeyore Caucus isn't going to like this.

[SunSeeker]

2. LOL

[Odin2005]

6. "Eeyore Caucus" LOL!

[closeupready]

14. I know. It's so predictable. "If it doesn't bleed, it shouldn't lead" seems

to be their axiomatic Truth.

[IronLionZion]

3. This is all Obama's fault!

[mobyditch]

4. Low paying jobs?

We need to look further into the kind of jobs that are going unfilled and the wages they are offering. Too many times these are low paying jobs or jobs that should be paying more. If employers are not going to pay living wages for jobs then the hell with filling them.

[whatthehey]

5. ...and another doomer stopped at the headline to look for gloom without reading further

Question: If openings are always dominated by low paying jobs, what should happen to the median pay rate?

Followup: What IS happening to the median pay rate?

Compare and contrast.

[GummyBearz]

8. Its a fair question to ask

The article lumps "typically well paying professional" and "services employers" in the same number. In this service based economy 90% of those positions could be part time Wal-Mart or fast food positions with no benefits and minimum wage. Something we typically complain about.

[whatthehey]

9. And an easy question to answer by looking at BLS median wage data, which belie such canards.

[GummyBearz]

12. If you have that data handy link it

I googled it and found this. Not exactly praise worthy

[whatthehey]

13. You really need to work on your googling then....

since the two terms I gave were "BLS" and "median wage" and using those I got bored after ten pages trying to find where you dredged up the doomer twist you posted. Meanwhile this was the first result straight from the official keepers of the real data...

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.t01.htm

[GummyBearz]

15. Nice googling

Total weekly earnings in current dollars (Q1 2007): 693
Total weekly earnings in current dollars (Q2 2016): 828

Increase: of 19.5% over ~9 years or 2.2% per year (I didn't spend the time to compound it so that number is off a little), which is about keeping up with the reported inflation numbers. Not doom, but not great. At the same time corporate profits soar to a new record about every quarter, so, yay for those guys... wonder who is making all the money?

[whatthehey]

16. Well it is advanced level stuff to enter "bls median wage" and pick the first item, you know

Glad I could be there for you. Next masterclass level tip is the same chart shows inflation adjusted data a few columns to the right on the same page to save you the math.

If you want to try lesson two on your own - do you think you could find where the real data on corporate quarterly profits is or do you need me there too?

The one thing I have never been able to find where you could possibly help me in return is a doomer who understands there's something in between "the sky is falling nobody can find a job paying enough to live on these days" and "everything is perfect and we're all getting massive raises (to hell with inflation)." Personally I, and the data, call that "reality." Slow, steady improvement impeded by Republican refusals to invest in either infrastructure or new technology let alone increase the minimum wage.

Remeber where this subthread started though; the inevitable kneejerk doomer response that any positive job growth must always be in low pay McJobs. This is false, QED by median real earnings. If all or even most new jobs were at starvation level, the median income would be both much less than $828 a week - well over 40k a year - and decreasing not increasing. 5 million jobs in a labor force of about 150MM are vacated and filled every month, so the result of these being dominated by worthless jobs would be rapidly noticeable. It just isn't happening. Even a cursory look at a job aggregator site like indeed shows this. Put in something that offers jobs at all pay levels like "purchasing" or "operations" or "finance" and you'll see plenty of low end jobs, plenty of middle class jobs and plenty of executive jobs.

[GummyBearz]

17. Thanks for the lesson

I simply entered "US median income". Didn't include BLS. There is a line between sky is falling and there aren't enough GOOD jobs these days. I tend to be on the latter side. 40K a year isn't livable where the majority of this nation lives (LA, SF, NY, Seattle, Boston, etc). Good luck having a middle class life style with that income in any big city. Add in all the debt consumers have massed up, from student loans to CCs, and welcome to the new middle class. Pay check to pay check. Not great.

[OilemFirchen]

10. There's nothing "lumped together".

"Typically well-paying professional and business services employers and health care outfits" account for 1.37 million openings. "Retail trade and leisure and hospitality companies" account for 1.03 million.

You wrongfully presume that the "services" in the first category suggests low-paying jobs. Quite the contrary. Syntax is your pal.

[GummyBearz]

11. If I got it wrong others may too

Good writing should be more clear. I guess everyone in this country is getting a management position

[Odin2005]

7. THANKS, OBAMA!!!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

18. Job openings increase to 5.9 million in July; hires and separations little changed

I went looking for this yesterday, but I didn't see that the BLS had released it. Anyway:

Job openings increase to 5.9 million in July; hires and separations little changed

Economic News Release USDL-16-1807

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary

For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Technical information: [phone] • [email protected] • www.bls.gov/jlt
Media contact: [phone] • [email protected]

JOB OPENINGS AND LABOR TURNOVER – JULY 2016

The number of job openings increased to 5.9 million on the last business day of July, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Hires and separations were little changed at 5.2 million and 4.9 million, respectively. Within separations, the quits rate was 2.1 percent and the layoffs and discharges rate was 1.1 percent. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the nonfarm sector by industry and by four geographic regions.

Job Openings

On the last business day of July, there were 5.9 million job openings, an increase of 228,000 from June. The job openings rate was 3.9 percent in July. The number of job openings increased over the month for total private (+243,000) and was little changed for government. Job openings increased in professional and business services (+166,000) and durable goods manufacturing (+27,000) but decreased in health care and social assistance (-63,000). The number of job openings was little changed in all four regions. (See table 1.)

Hires

The number of hires was 5.2 million in July, little changed from June. The hires rate was 3.6 percent in July. The number of hires was little changed for total private and for government. Hires increased in professional and business services (+137,000) but decreased in other services (-77,000). The number of hires increased in the South region. (See table 2.)
....

____________
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey results for August 2016 are scheduled to be
released on Wednesday, October 12, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. (EDT).

[center]Facilities for Sensory Impaired[/center]

Information from this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: [phone], Federal Relay Services: 1-800-877-8339.

Previously at DU:

Job openings little changed at 5.6 million in June; hires and separations little changed

Job openings decreased to 5.5 million in May; hires and separations little changed

Job openings little changed at 5.8 million in April; hires edge down to 5.1 million

Job openings little changed at 5.8 million in March; hires edged down to 5.3 million

Job openings little changed at 5.4 million in February: hires increase to 5.4 million

Job openings rise to 5.5 million in January; annual hires and quits increase in 2015

Job openings rose to 5.6 million in December; quits rose to 3.1 million

Job openings little changed at 5.4 million in November

Job openings little changed at 5.4 million in October

Job openings little changed at 5.5 million in September

Job openings decrease to 5.4 million in August; hires and separations are little changed

Job Openings in July Rise to Record High

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[font color=red]New material, added August 2, 2106:[/font] (Yes. It takes me that long to clean house.)

Title in print edition of Washington Post, Wednesday, May 8, 2013, Page A13: "For labor market, quitting is a healthy attitude"

Churn, baby, churn: The labor market won’t be healthy until people feel like they can quit their jobs

By Neil Irwin
[email protected]

May 7, 2013

America needs more quitters.

Or the job market does, anyway. That’s the lesson to draw from the latest Labor Department report, which shows the soft underbelly of the U.S. jobs picture. The unemployment rate may be falling and the number of jobs rising. But there isn’t enough “churn” going on, a hallmark of a healthy job market, in which people freely move between positions.

Let’s back up a minute. On the first Friday of every month, the world holds its breath at 8:30 a.m. to await the jobs report, telling how many jobs were created in the previous month, what the unemployment rate was, and what happened to wages. But those numbers are a blunt picture of the labor market. Tuesday morning, the Labor Department released the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, for March. It is the favorite data series of labor market wonks everywhere. It parses the details of how many people quit their jobs, how many were laid off or fired, and how many openings employers are looking to fill.

The more standard job numbers point to solid economic improvement over the last year: In the 12 months ending in March, the unemployment rate fell from 8.2 percent to 7.6 percent, and added an average of 168,000 jobs a month. The JOLTS numbers point to something less sunny.