U.S. job openings increased in March and employers appeared to have trouble filling openings, indicating the labor market remains fairly robust despite April’s slowdown in employment gains.
Job openings, a measure of labor demand, increased 149,000 to a seasonally adjusted 5.8 million, the Labor Department said on Tuesday. The increase lifted the jobs openings rate to 3.9 percent from 3.8 percent in February.
Hiring, however, fell to 5.3 million from 5.5 million in February, suggesting employers are probably not finding qualified workers for the open positions. The hiring rate slipped to 3.7 percent from 3.8 percent in March.
The monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, is one of the job market metrics on Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s so-called dashboard.
