In what could be a positive bit of jobs news, job openings rose to three million in July. Whether those jobs are filled quickly is another matter entirely.
The job openings rate increased over the month to 2.3 percent. The hires rate (3.3 percent) and the separations rate (3.4 percent) were unchanged, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS added, “Even with the gains since July 2009, the number of job openings remained below the 4.4 million open jobs when the recession began in December 2007.”
The glass may be half empty. The current level of job openings may be too low to have any significant effect in bringing down the unemployment rate of 9.6%. The three million openings are only valuable to the extent to which they get filled, and, despite what many economists say, there is no way to predict that future.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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