US Job Openings Decline From Record Level But Remain High

• The hot demand for U.S. workers cooled a bit in April, though the number of unfilled jobs remains high and companies are still desperate to hire more people. 
• Employers advertised 11.4Mn jobs at the end of April, according to the Labour Department on June 1, down from nearly 11.9Mn in March, the highest level on records that date back more than 20 years. At that level, there are nearly two job openings for every unemployed person. However, although still high, job openings fell in restaurants and hotels, and also dropped in health care and retail sectors. They however rose in manufacturing, warehousing, and construction. 
• The healthy level of open jobs shows that companies are still trying to add staff and grow, even as inflation hovers near a 40-year high and the Federal Reserve has embarked on what could be its fastest pace of interest rate hikes since the 1980s. 
• The number of people quitting their jobs remained near record highs at 4.4Mn in April, mostly unchanged from the previous month. Nearly all of those who quit do so to take another job, typically for higher pay. 
• The historically high number of unfilled jobs and the number of people quitting has forced employers to pay more to attract and keep staff. Those trends are driving solid wage gains for America’s workers, particularly those that switch jobs. 
• Economists believe employers added 323,000 jobs in May, and that the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.5%, matching its pre-pandemic low, from 3.6%.

(Source: AP News)