Job Openings Still Outpace Hiring

Job openings continue to accelerate much faster than hiring, up 3.1 percent in December to a 7.335 million level that easily exceeds Econoday's consensus range. Hiring is also on a sharp climb but is lagging, up 1.6 percent in the month to 5.907 million.

The gap between openings and hires is now 1.428 million, a new record and up from 1.304 million in November. And the gap is likewise high between openings and those who were actively looking for work, at 1.041 million and next only in the record book to November's 1.098 million.

Year-on-year comparisons further underscore the dislocation with openings up 29.4 percent vs only a 7.1 percent gain for hires.

Given how difficult it is for employees to fill openings, the number of layoffs & discharges in the month fell 3.2 percent to 1.697 million. In contrast, the number of employees who quit rose 1.0 percent to 3.482 million in what hints at worker mobility and the pull from higher paying rivals. But year-on-year the rise in quits is still moderate at 4.3 percent with layoffs & discharges subdued at 2.5 percent.

Growth in new jobs has been outmatching growth in the labor market which is a classic formula for a breakout in wage inflation, yet something that has mysteriously yet to appear. There are already lots of red signals in this report and perhaps the most important one will be if and when quits start gaining more significant traction.