Aug. 8 (UPI) — The number of job openings surged to a record 6.2 million in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Tuesday.
The number of openings on the last business day of June was an increase of 461,000 from 5.7 million at the end of May, the Labor Department agency reported.
The figure is the highest since the department began tracking the figure in December 2000. The previous record high was 5.8 million in July 2015.
In April, there were a seasonally adjusted 6 million openings.
Professional and business services openings grew by a segment-high 179,000, followed by health care with 125,000 and construction at 62,000.
“Are you really struggling to find workers?” Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari told business leaders Monday. “If so, the proof for me is you are raising wages. If you are not raising wages, then it just sounds like whining.”
In June, the reported hires were 5.4 million and the number of separations were 5.2 million — virtually unchanged.
The Midwest, South, West experienced an increase in job openings and the Northeast was unchanged. In terms of hiring, the Northeast decreased and the other regions stayed the same.
The number of layoffs and discharges were 1.7 million in June — 1.2 percent — which was little changed from May.
According to the report, hires over 12 months totaled 63.4 million and separations were 61.1 million, yielding a net employment gain of 2.3 million.
In June, there were 1.1 million unemployed people vying for every opening in June, down from 1.9 million in 2007 when the recession began.
BLS data lags a month behind the Labor Department’s other jobs data by one month.
Last week, the department reported the unemployment rate in July matched a 16-year low at 4.3 percent. And total nonfarm payroll employment grew by 209,000.
