WASHINGTON -- U.S. employers sharply ramped up their demand for workers in January, advertising 6.3 million jobs at the end of the month, the most on records dating back 17 years.
The number of job opening soared 645,000 in January, the Labor Department said Friday, the largest one-month increase in 2½ years. The number of people hired ticked up and fewer Americans quit in January compared with the previous month.
The huge demand for workers comes as the unemployment rate is already at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. The report shows that overall hiring increased by a much smaller amount than job openings, suggesting that employers are having difficulty finding the workers they need. That may raise pressure on companies to increase pay in the coming months to attract more applicants.
The data could fuel debates about whether a "skills gap" has made it harder for companies to fill open positions. Business groups argue that many jobs, particularly in manufacturing, administrative work, and information technology, require greater or different skill sets than in the past, and not enough workers have them.
Some economists respond that businesses should offer higher wages if they are truly desperate for more employees. Americans' paychecks have picked up a bit in recent years, but by most measures the gains are still sluggish compared with previous periods when the unemployment rate was this low.
The report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, or JOLTS, shows that job openings surged nearly 16 percent in January compared with a year earlier. Yet the number of jobs getting filled rose just 2.3 percent, to 5.6 million in January.
Business on 03/17/2018