By Eric Morath WSJ Tues., Feb. 12, 2019 The number of unfilled jobs in the U.S. rose in December to the highest level on record dating back to 2000. There were a seasonally adjusted 7.34 million job openings on the last business day of December, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That was up from a revised 7.17 million at the end November, and surpassed August’s 7.29 million openings to set a new record level. In December, openings exceeded the unemployed—people without a job but actively seeking work—by more than 1 million. Before 2018, job openings had never exceeded unemployed workers in 18 years of monthly records. The high number of job openings relative to those available to take them points to an extremely tight labor market. The unemployment rate was 3.9% in December, just above a 49-year low. The rate edged up to 4% in January, the department said earlier this month, but the increase was largely due to the partial government shutdown which caused some federal workers to be counted as temporarily unemployed. Tuesday’s report showed the rate at which American’s quit their job—as sign of confidence in the job market—held steady for the third straight month in December. The rate was down slightly from the 17-year high touched last summer. Article Continued Below The rate at which Americans were fired or involuntarily laid off from their jobs fell slightly in December, and was just above a record low touched in early 2018. Write to Eric Morath at [email protected]… [Read full story]
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