-Narayana Kocherlakota, Minneapolis Fed President
The number of US job openings surged to the highest level in 14 years in February, US Labor Department reported. Openings soared by 168,000 to 5.13 million in the reported month, hitting the highest since January 2001. That was the second highest reading in the history of the series starting from December 2000, following the nearly 5.3 million job openings recorded in the following January. The report also showed that there were 4.9 million hires in February, slightly less than 4.99 million seen in the preceding month. At the same time the number of people quitting jobs dropped to 2.7 million after hitting a seven-year high of 2.8 million in January. A large number of quits is indicative of a dynamic labour market, in which workers feel confident to leave one job for another. Meanwhile, Americans' confidence in the nation's economic performance reached eight-year high, the latest CNBC All-America Economic survey showed. A record 27% assess the state of the world's number one economy as excellent or good compared with 16% a year ago. The report also reveal only 28% of US citizens expect the economy to improve next year, a one-point improvement from last quarter. Despite constantly strengthening fundamentals, Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota argued that the Fed should be "extraordinarily patient", putting off the rate hike at least until the second half of next year due to still low employment and excessively low inflation.
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