By Job openings outnumbered available workers by nearly 5 million in January, the latest sign of a historically tight employment picture, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.
Total vacancies actually dipped a bit, falling to 11.26 million following a substantial upward adjustment in December’s numbers, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed.
That still left job postings 4.75 million above the total counted as unemployed for the month.
The total was more than the FactSet estimate of 10.9 million.
Along with the slight decline in openings came a decrease in quits, or workers voluntarily leaving their jobs. The so-called Great Resignation ebbed for the month, with quits declining to 4.25 million, a drop of 3.4% and the lowest number since October. As a share of the labor force, the quits rate declined to 2.8% from 3% the previous two months.
Federal Reserve officials watch the JOLTS report for signs of labor slack. With the jobless rate at 3.8%, policymakers feel the economy is near full employment. Coupled with inflation running at 7.5%, the robust jobs market has set the stage for an expected series of Fed interest rate increases this year.
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