- Deutsche Bank
The US labour market continued to tighten as job openings rose, while the quits rate remained steady, supporting the Fed on the path to normalizing monetary policy. US companies are struggling to fill a higher number of job vacancies than in much of the past 12 years. Many workers hesitate to quit their job, signalling Americans remained concerned about employment prospects even with 5% jobless rate.
The number of vacant positions climbed to 5.43 million in November following a downwardly revised 5.35 million openings a month earlier, according to the Labor Department. The number of openings increased from 4.89 million a year ago, after having reached a record-high of 5.67 million in summer. The JOLT report followed a series of other labour market indicators, which pointed to some improvement in the market. Last week, the monthly jobs report showed almost 300,000 jobs were created in December. Furthermore, the report showed companies hired a total 5.2 million workers in November, compared with 5.17 million a month earlier. The hires rate held at 3.6%, where it has been steady since hitting the high of the current business cycle at 3.7% in June. Meanwhile, the quits rate was steady at 2% in November, shy of its pre-recession peak of 2.3% reached in November 2006, when almost 3.1 million quits were registered.
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