-Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Inc.
Job openings rose in January to the highest level since 2001, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of job openings climbed to 5 million, up from 4.88 million openings reported in December. A gradual increase in job listings is reinforcing view of labour-market strength, as payroll growth have helped push the unemployment rate down to the lowest level in almost seven years. US employers added 295,000 jobs in February, while the US jobless rate slid to 5.5%, its lowest reading since May 2008. Payrolls have risen an average 267,000 so far this year after almost 260,000 a month in 2014, the strongest pace of growth since 1999.
Meanwhile, US wholesale inventories surprisingly rose in January, as sales dropped the most since 2009. According to the Commerce Department, wholesale inventories climbed 0.3%, with sales at wholesalers declining 3.1% in January following the 0.9% drop a month earlier. On an annual basis, sales were 1% lower in January of 2015 than they were a year earlier. Inventories are one of the main components of gross domestic product changes. Although having more inventories does positively contribute to GDP, there is also an important flipside - if a lot of unsold goods accumulate in warehouses and on companies shelves, it can result in businesses reducing production.
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