Job Openings Fall, Hiring Picks Up

Job openings fell back and hirings picked up to narrow a gap which is still large and still pointing to unusually tight conditions in the labor market. Openings in October fell 2 percent in October to 5.996 million while hires rose 4.4 percent to 5.552 million. The difference between openings and hires, at 444,000, is down from nearly 800,000 in September and is the smallest since May. Yet openings have been ahead of hires for nearly 2 years as employers have had a difficult time filling positions in what underscores recent warnings out of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book: that lack of skilled workers is holding down business expansion.

Recent History Of This Indicator:
At 4.1 percent, the unemployment rate is low and consistent with full employment which is also the signal from the JOLTS report where job openings have been running very strong, over 6 million at 6.093 million in September. Econoday's consensus for October job openings is 6.100 million.