WASHINGTON -- Job openings in the U.S. climbed to a 13-year high in August, the Labor Department said Tuesday, as employers gained confidence about the outlook for demand in the world's biggest economy.
The number of positions waiting to be filled rose to 4.84 million in August, the most since January 2001, from a revised 4.61 million the month before. Hiring and firings cooled, while fewer people quit their jobs.
The upswing in openings adds to signs of sustained progress in the labor market. The figures form part of a package of data Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen and her colleagues use to measure the labor market's health, which will help determine when the central bank will to begin to raise its benchmark interest rate in 2015.
"This should be another indication that the job market remains healthy," said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. "I don't know that it's decisive for the Fed, but it would confirm other indicators which suggest the job market is getting healthier."
The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 4.7 million openings after a previously reported 4.67 million in July.
Tuesday's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed employers hired 4.64 million people in August, down from 4.93 million the month before.
The hiring rate dropped to 3.3 percent from 3.6 percent in July. The rate calculates the number of hires divided by the number of employees who worked or received pay during the month.
Job openings increased most among health-care providers, retailers and hotels and restaurants. They declined among construction firms and state and local government agencies.
The number of total dismissals, which excludes retirements and those who left their jobs voluntarily, fell to 4.44 million from 4.63 million in July.
Some 2.47 million people quit their jobs in August, the fewest since April and down from 2.55 million. The quits rate, which shows the willingness of workers to leave their jobs, held at 1.8 percent. It was at 2 percent when the last recession started in December 2007.
The openings report is one of nine measures on Yellen's labor-market dashboard, which she uses to help guide monetary policy. Just three gauges -- the job openings rate, payrolls and the pace of dismissals -- have returned to where they were before the last recession, indicating there's still room for improvement in the job market.
The Fed last month tapered monthly bond buying to $15 billion in its seventh-consecutive $10 billion cut, staying on course to end the purchase program this month. Policymakers also stuck to their pledge to keep interest rates near zero for a "considerable time" after the Fed stops buying assets.
"There are still too many people who want jobs but cannot find them, too many who are working part time but would prefer full-time work," Yellen said during a Sept. 17 news conference after the central bank's last policy meeting. That "significant underutilization of labor resources" is keeping lid on wages, she said.
Fed officials are watching the labor market as they start considering their first interest-rate increase since 2006.
Considering the 9.59 million Americans who were unemployed in August, Tuesday's figures indicate there are about 2 people vying for every opening, up from about 1.8 when the last recession began in December 2007.
A surge in hiring pushed unemployment to a six-year low of 5.9 percent in September as the labor market showed renewed vigor, a Labor Department report last week showed. Employers added 248,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.9 percent, its lowest since July 2008.
"This is more evidence that we should expect further robust gains in employment over the next few months and, consequently, further declines in the unemployment rate," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics.
Information for this article was contributed by Chris Middleton of Bloomberg News and Josh Boak of Bloomberg News.
Business on 10/08/2014