In The Things Are Getting Better Department

From time to time I like to highlight data that shows how things are getting better for the economy.  This chart shows Total Job Openings Minus Total Unemployed {JOLTS}.  JOLTS notes the difference between employers looking to hire for a specific skill set vs. unemployed in the work force.  JOLTS data has recently slowed a bit but it is still at what I believe to be  an all time high.  

Dr. Ed Yardeni has an excellent blog for economic statistics and it is from a piece he wrote "Running Out of Workers" that I found this chart.  Here are some of his highlights from this last batch of statistics on jobs:

(1) Openings. There certainly are plenty of job openings. They totaled 7.45 million during April, exceeding the number of unemployed workers by a record 1.6 million.

(3) The biggest. The biggest increases in job openings compared to a year ago have been in some of the most cyclical industries: construction (404,000, up from 258,000), durable goods manufacturing (322,000 up from 288,000), state & local government excluding education (359,000, up from 339,000), transportation, warehousing & utilities (373,000, up from 348,000), and financial services (365,000, up from 328,000)

(5) Labor force. Last year, the labor force increased 217,000 per month on average (Fig. 6). During the first five months of this year, it is down 119,000 per month on average. This must be exacerbating labor shortages. 

(7) Small business owners. The report reviewing May’s NFIB small business survey showed that the demand for labor by small business owners remains strong. Last month, 38.0% said that they have job openings, which continues the readings in record-high territory (Fig. 8). The net percentage increasing hiring over the next three months was 21.0%, near previous cyclical highs. However, the percentage complaining of few or no qualified applicants for their job openings was 54.0%. 

Twenty-five percent of all owners cited the difficulty of finding qualified workers as their Single Most Important Business Problem, equaling the record high. Fourteen percent of all firms reported using temporary workers. In construction, 59% had openings, and 93% of those openings were for skilled workers. No wonder that construction payrolls rose only 4,000 during May. 

Economic growth may be slowing in the US and globally but statistical numbers like those cited above do not make the case for an economy that's on the brink of a recession. 

Back Thursday or Friday.

PS:  Retail sales just came in better than expected and import prices fell.  In fact import prices fell the most in the past 6 months.  To quote CNBC's Steve Liesman, "Somebody forgot to tell the consumer that the economy is slowing.