WASHINGTON, D.C. - Employers across the U.S. had 5 million job openings at the end of January, the most since January 2001, providing further hope that the labor market is on the mend. 

According to a report from the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. economy added nearly 300,000 jobs in the month of February. This has exceeded expectations as unemployment ticked down to its lowest reading since May 2008, according to U.S. News and World Report.

Openings have been rising across a range of industries, according to the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Professional and business services, health care and accommodations, and food services have seen openings rise; mining and logging, which includes the oil industry, has seen openings decline.

The level of hiring declined slightly in January, falling to 5 million from 5.2 million in December. The total number of people leaving their job declined slightly, too–separations fell to 4.8 million from 4.9 million.

“For many years now, we’ve been mostly focused on the employer perspective. Are there job openings? Do employers want to hire? Whereas now what we’re seeing is there are tons of job openings. Employers definitely want to hire. But are the workers going to be there?” Tara Sinclair, Chief Economist for job site Indeed told U.S. News and World Report. “I’m really looking forward to seeing more people enter the workforce in substantial numbers.”

The Labor Department’s main jobs report shows the net change in jobs—a gain of 295,000 jobs in February—but the Jolts report digs one level deeper, cataloging the millions of workers each month who quit a job or are laid off, retire, start a new job or switch jobs.

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen has identified the job report’s tally of the number of people who voluntarily quit their jobs each month as an important barometer of the economy’s health. In a good labor market, workers are more willing to quit—owing to greater confidence in their prospects or greater opportunities to find different work, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“It could go up or down depending on whether we are also drawing more people back into the labor force,” continued Sinclair on the unemployment rate. “And there’s a huge group of people out there who have the potential for participating in the labor force, but they’ve been out for some time now.” 

Other highlights from the report include:

• The number of workers voluntarily quitting their job climbed to 2.8 million.
• Average hourly earnings expanded a modest 3 cents last month to $24.78, up 2 percent.
• Average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees was unchanged from January at $20.80. Hourly earnings actually fell in the construction, manufacturing, mining and logging and trade, transportation and utilities sectors.
• The average workweek for private nonfarm employees was 34.6 hours in the month of February. 
• Workers in the manufacturing sector, whose industry was slammed this week by a nearly $1 billion drop in new orders for manufactured goods, worked an average of 41 hours a week.
• The manufacturing sector added 8,000 jobs month over month.
• The U.S. deficit shrank by $3.8 billion in January, down to $41.8 billion from December’s $45.6 billion. 
• Exports were down $5.6 billion, while imports fell $9.4 billion month over month. But the deficit rose $2.9 billion, or 7.5 percent.

Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow for continued updates on the evolving economy.

U.S. Department of Labor