America is hiring like never before.
Job openings in the United States soared by nearly a million in April, setting a record for the most openings added in a month and the highest overall number since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking the data in December 2000. At 9.3 million new positions, it was far more than the 8.3 million economists polled by Refinitiv had predicted — which would have been flat from the revised March job opening numbers. Demand for workers is running red-hot as companies continue to brace themselves for a busy summer, said Lydia Boussour, lead US economist at Oxford Economics. Despite employers’ desire to hire, workers aren’t exactly ready to come back to work: Although job openings surged, American employers hired just 6.1 million people in April, a slight uptick from March, leaving millions of jobs unfilled. Many parents continue to juggle childcare and home responsibilities as the pandemic continues, keeping some people with children from going back to work.
