Job openings rose 181,000 in December to 5.03 million, the most since January 2001, from a revised 4.85 million the month before, the Labor Department reported Tuesday in Washington. The number of Americans hired advanced to a seven-year high.
An increase in the number of people who voluntarily quit their jobs signals greater optimism about finding work elsewhere as stronger demand prompts a pickup in job listings. The figures, among those used by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues, keep the central bank on track to raise interest rates later this year.
“The fact that you have so many new jobs coming on the market shortens the time that individuals have to spend in unemployment, between jobs,” said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP LLC in Jersey City, New Jersey. Crandall is the second-best forecaster of job openings over the last two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
