Labour shortage amidst record high vacancies in the US

A whopping 4.5 million people have given up their jobs, while there are 11.5 million job openings

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Wages across the US are witnessing record hikes. While vacancies are at a record high, about 4.5 million people have quit their jobs.

That means, employers are under pressure to offer higher wages to attract talent amidst this labour shortage, which will only add to the rising inflation.

The Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey report by the Department of Labour, or JOLTS as it is known, reveals that a whopping 4.5 million people gave up their jobs willingly.

This is likely to accelerate wage pressures and inflation. As per government reports, wages across the US witnessed the largest increase in about 30 years.

This is good news for workers, who can now look forward to wage hikes, more so when they switch jobs. The trend is likely to continue this year.

Job vacancies touched 11.5 million at the end of March, with the maximum rise in openings in the retail space, which had about 1.5 lakh more vacancies, followed by the manufacturing sector, where additional openings of over 50,000 were reported.

The transportation, warehousing and utilities space witnessed a fall in vacancies. Even the national and local government education sector reported about 43,000 fewer vacancies. Vacancies in the federal government fell by 20,000.

The gap between jobs and workers is considered by many as the best way to gauge how tight the labour market is. This gap has definitely increased, pushing the US government to consider measures to control inflation.

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