Job Openings Rise in June

Posted By: Jeffrey T. McCormack In: Job Seeker - General

On August 7^th, most all major news sites reported that the Labor Department released a report the previous day stating that for the month of June, the amount of job openings rose higher than it has been in four years. In May the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey reported 3.66 million openings, and in June it reached 3.76 million, the highest it has been since June of 2008. Reports also show the amount of layoffs has fallen too; from roughly 2 million in May down to 1.8 million in June.

With an increase in openings, it means hiring could pick up soon. It usually takes one to three months for companies to fill a position, so the hiring rate may have already begun to be noticeable at this time. However, the competition for those positions is still high, with an average 3.4 unemployed people per each job opening available. Of course that is a bit better than May and much better than the summer of 2009 figures when it was about 7-to-1. When the job market is healthier, the average tends to stay around 2-to-1, so we have a ways to go still.

While many sources report that the recession officially ended in 2009, and that since then the openings have increased by 57 percent, it is reported that during that same time period the hiring figures have only gone up about 19 percent.  The number of added jobs for the months of April through June was down, causing some to feel the job market was stalling instead of slowly improving as it had in previous months, but the 163,000 jobs added in July have helped alleviate that feeling slightly.

During the month of June, retailers as well as most government agencies had a cut in available jobs, but manufacturers, health care and restaurants had an increase in openings. However, even with the rising numbers in openings, the amount of actual people hired in June dropped from the month of May which had actually risen to the highest it had been in three and a half years. Once you calculate and subtract out the amount of people who separated from their jobs in one way or another, the actual amount of new jobs gained is about 64,000.

If this trend continues and they continue to see the number of layoffs drop, and the number of openings rise, the number of actual hires will not need to be as high in order to see a rise in the figures of the actual amount of new jobs gained.

In light of the last three months where the figured stalled, this is a nice bit of news for the market at this time. So, if you have been unemployed for a length of time long enough that at this point you are slowing down in your energy to find a new job, pick the pace back up, as this is a good time based on the numbers.