(TotalConservative.com) – August 2023 marked an unexpected spike in job openings, a jump that surprised Labor Department officials who reported the 690,000 increase on Tuesday.
New data reported by the US Department of Labor shows that job openings increased by 690,000, from the steady 8.8 million it was holding to 9.6 million. The two main areas of growth are in the professional services and business category, but other areas include insurance and finance, local and state government, federal government jobs, and others.
Kathy Jones, a fixed-income analyst, posted on Twitter about the jump shown in the JOLTs Job Openings report, which she said was “way above expectations.”
The report always showed a steady labor market, and that the number of employees being hired, quitting, or being laid off has remained mostly stable. Other analysts will await other job market data to come out to be sure the report isn’t an anomaly. The federal government is scheduled to release a monthly jobs report on Friday for September.
Americans are currently facing record inflation and skyrocketing food and gas prices. The cost of living seems to be increasing, and the entire market took a massive hit during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. The lockdowns also transformed the job market, forcing many into remote jobs and emptying office buildings, some of which remain empty. Lots of people also lost their jobs due to vaccine mandates, or rearranged their career paths in response to the lockdowns and mandates, with many choosing to relocate from one state to another.
An increase in job openings paints somewhat of an optimistic picture, but how positive such a data point turns out to be depends more upon how quickly those jobs can be filled. Student loan payments kick off again this month after a three-year pause, and that may drive a surge of borrowers to seek better employment opportunities.
Copyright 2023, TotalConservative.com
