America’s worker shortage is far from over: In January, the nation had a record 11.3 million jobs to fill and not enough workers to do so, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This exceeded economists’ expectations and blew past the previous peak for open positions, set at 11.1 million last July.
Despite the new record high, job openings fell in several industries as infections from the Omicron variant of the coronavirus weighed on some businesses. Hotels, restaurants and bars recorded the biggest decrease in available positions, followed by transportation, warehouse, utilities and the federal government.
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Professional and business services, education and transport and warehousing counted the most available job openings.
Meanwhile, the number of hires and quits were unchanged between December and January: 6.5 million workers were hired and 4.3 million workers quit their jobs at the start of the year, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed Wednesday.
The quits rate improved to 2.8% from 3% in December.
Better pay, as people are trying to offset the higher prices everywhere from the grocery store to the gas pump, has been a big motivator for Americans to switch jobs.
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Executives plan to boost hiring even with thousands of open jobs in Triangle
