US now has 5 million more jobs than unemployed people

Highlights

• Job attrition increased by 94,000 to 4.35 million in February from the previous month.
• Also, the percentage of the workforce rose from 2.8 % in January to 2.9% in February.
• However, the unemployed population shrunk to 6.27 million, widening the gap further with five million more openings than available workers.

More US workers have quit their jobs in February, widening the gap further between open positions and the unemployed as resignations continued, the Labor Department’s latest data showed on Tuesday.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) revealed that job attrition increased by 94,000 to 4.35 million in February from the previous month. Furthermore, the percentage of the workforce rose a tad higher from 2.8 % in January to 2.9% in February.

1.8 jobs per unemployed person

There were 11.27 million open positions during the same period, marginally down from January. However, the unemployed population shrunk to 6.27 million, widening the gap further with five million more openings than available workers. Every unemployed person now has 1.8 jobs in the US.

The highest reported vacancies were in the education and healthcare sector at 2.23 million in February, followed by skilled and enterprise providers at 2.1 million, while commerce, transportation and utilities trailed with 1.86 million vacancies.

The highest quits were recorded in November last year at 4.51 million, representing three percent of the total US workforce. The sectors that saw the maximum exodus of employees were trade, transportation, and utilities at 1.06 million. The quits rate for the leisure and hospitality sector remained unchanged at 5.6 percent in February.

Employees leaving their current organization have purportedly landed themselves better opportunities, adding to the trend of the Great Resignation.

Hirings shot up by 263,000 in February, pushing the rate to 4.4%, whereas marching orders and discharges fell to 1.39 million. Overall, employee separations were somewhat higher, remaining under 6.1 million.

The JOLTS report is a helpful tool for the Federal Reserve officials, who closely follow it to monitor any signs of sluggishness in the labor market. The extremely harsh jobs scenario has triggered higher inflation, forcing the Fed to start raising interest rates.

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Economists anticipate higher nonfarm payrolls in March

A crucial picture of the labor market will be out on Friday when the Labor Department releases its nonfarm payrolls count for March.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones anticipated nonfarm payrolls growth of 490,000 and a rise in the average hourly earnings of 0.4% for the month, plus 5.5% on a 12-month basis.