1 Million More Job Openings Than Americans Looking for Work: Report

A Now Hiring sign is seen in this file photo. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A report from a consultancy firm said that there are around 1 million more job openings around the United States than there are potential workers.

The Department of Labor also said on Aug. 6 that there are around 8.7 million potential workers looking for jobs and are counted as unemployed. However, Indeed, a job placement website, said there are around 9.8 million job vacancies as of July 16, which is several days after the government’s sample period for monthly workers.

The firm said that job postings as of July 16 increased 35 percent above Feb. 1, 2020 levels, or before the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic really started to affect the United States.

As a result of the apparent workforce shortage, job postings “mention urgency and hiring incentives,” it said.

“The share of job postings that use words like ‘hiring urgently’ has jumped more than 50 percent since the start of the year,” it added. “While job postings have been rebounding steadily since last summer, in recent months job postings have increasingly mentioned urgent hiring.”

The report further said that “employers are offering bonuses and other hiring incentives,” adding that 4.3 percent of job postings mention incentives as of July 16—up from 1.8 percent about a year ago.

Other firms noted that employers are starting to have to offer more incentives.

“This is one of the most complex labor markets in recent memory,” said Scott Hamilton, global managing director for the human resources and compensation consulting practice at Gallagher, according to a CNBC report published over the past weekend. “One of the biggest factors is employers are essentially having to buy back job applicants’ Covid lifestyle.”

And the slowest growth in job postings are Silicon Valley in California, the Washington D.C. metropolitan area; Honolulu; San Francisco; Oakland; Seattle; Dayton, Ohio; Boston; Baltimore; Lansing, Michigan; and the New York City metropolitan area.

One reason for the lack of workers to fill positions, as Republican lawmakers have noted, is due to the enhanced unemployment benefits that were passed in Congress due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Money issues seem to be a rising concern among unemployed workers not searching urgently” Nick Bunker, Indeed’s economic research director, said, according to the report. “More of them said the end of [unemployment insurance] benefits or financial cushions running low were major milestones that could prompt them to take a job.

According to data from the Department of Labor released Monday, the number of positions available around the United States increased to 10.1 million as of the last day in June. There were 9.2 million openings in May. The economy also added about 943,000 jobs in July in the best monthly showing last August, while the unemployment rate dipped to 5.4 percent, according to the Department of Labor.