WASHINGTON - U.S. employers posted more job openings in February, a sign to analysts that hiring will likely improve in the months ahead.
The Labor Department said Tuesday that employers advertised 4.2 million job openings, up 7.7 percent from January. That’s the highest number of postings since January 2008, when the recession was just beginning and the economy had yet to suffer the full shock of the downturn.
The figures, which are among nine labor-market barometers closely watched by Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen, reinforce other data showing steady improvement. Accelerated hiring would help provide bigger wage gains needed to boost consumer spending, which accounts for almost 70 percent of the economy.
“Everything is pointing to an improving labor market, which the [Federal Reserve] obviously wants to see,” said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. “But they want to see much more improvement in the labor markets before they consider the economy is healthy again.”
There are roughly 2.5 unemployed Americans for each open job, the report showed. That average has slowly been approaching the 2-to-1 ratio that is typical of healthier economies, after peaking at 6.7 unemployed people for each available job in July 2009, just after the recession ended.
Hiring has accelerated over the past two months after a winter slowdown. After factoring in job losses, employers added 192,000 jobs in March and 197,000 in February, the government said Friday.
That was significantly higher than in December and January, when snowstorms reduced job growth. The unemployment rate has stayed at 6.7 percent for the past two months.
Tuesday’s government report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, offers a more complete picture of the job market. It includes additional data on hiring and the number of people quitting or being laid off.
Total hiring rose 1.5 percent to 4.6 million in February. That’s still less than a healthy job market, where around 5 million people are hired each month.
The number of people who quit their jobs rose slightly last month, the report said, while layoffs declined.
The additional data in Tuesday’s report illustrates how much turnover is happening in the job market. Stronger job markets usually include a greater amount of churn, with more people quitting and greater overall hiring.
A rise in those quitting jobs can be a positive sign because people often depart for a new job or have confidence they will find one. More quits also open up more positions for job-seekers.
Yellen has said the central bank monitors the quits and hiring figures as key indicators of the job market’s health. The figures help the Fed decide how to manage short-term interest rates and other efforts to foster financial stability.
Openings rose in February in retail and business services, as well as in construction, education and health care, and hotels and restaurants. They dropped in manufacturing and retail.
Lowe’s Cos. is among those planning to add to headcount and seeking to improve worker productivity. The home-improvement retailer announced Feb. 19 that it will add about 25,000 seasonal employees this year for the industry’s busiest season.
Mooresville, N.C.-based Lowe’s increased hours for its customer-service employees last year and is training and redeploying workers to improve sales, Chief Customer Officer Michael Jones said at a March 19 conference. Growth will be driven by improved productivity rather than store openings,he said.
“When you look at our fourth-quarter performance, you can see how, notwithstanding the fact that we’ve added labor to drive close rate, we’re able to flex that labor to protect our operating performance,” Jones said.
Information for this article was contributed by Josh Boak of The Associated Press, and Lorraine Woellert and Chris Middleton of Bloomberg News.
Business, Pages 25 on 04/09/2014