Near Record 5.6 Million Americans Were Hired In October, Most In Over 16 Years

Jon Alternative Media, Blogosphere, Economy, Fiscal Policies

After a burst of record high job openings which started in June and eased modestly in August, today’s October JOLTS report – Janet Yellen’s favorite labor market indicator – showed a sharp drop in job openings across most categories now that hurricane distortions have cleared out of the system, with the total number dropping from 6.177MM to 5.996MM, well below the 6.135MM estimate, the biggest monthly drop and the lowest job openings number since May, resulting in an October job opening rate of 3.9% vs 4% in Sept.
After nearly two years of being rangebound between 5.5 and 6 million, the latest drop in job openings despite the alleged improvement in the economy is another inidication that an increasingly greater number of jobs may simply remain unfilled in a labor market where skill shortages and labor imbalances are becoming structural.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Dec 11, 2017.