Job Openings Higher Than Expected

April job openings totaled a higher-than-expected 7.449 million, up 343,000 from March's revised 7.474 million. But hires couldn't keep April's pace, at 5.697 million in April to increase the gap with openings by a slight 22,000 to 1.755 million, roughly where its been holding since late last year. Quits are also roughly steady, at 3.482 million for a small 21,000 gain from March with the quits rate unchanged at 2.3 percent to indicate limited job movement. Useful comparisons for this report are the 5.824 million unemployed that were actively looking for work in April and the 10.933 million in the total available labor pool (which includes those wanting a job but not actively looking).