If Job Openings Broke Records, Why Weren’t Job Gains Higher?
Job openings rose to a new record at the end of July, reaching 5.9 million, but strangely the rate of hiring stayed flat at 5.2 million for the second month in a row—leaving experts wondering what’s up with the disconnect in the labor market.
The number of unemployed workers per job opening has fallen to 1.3, its lowest point since 2001, but around 300,000 fewer people are actually being hired into jobs each month than were being hired in February, the Wall Street Journal reports. Additionally, during the entire recovery, the US economy has failed to reach the levels of hiring seen at the heights of the middle of the last decade.
While nobody knows for sure why there is this disconnect in the labor market, experts theorize it could be because workers lack the skills needed for available jobs, employers are too picky or that available jobs are in different locations than unemployed workers. [WSJ]
