What Happened:
Employers in April were looking to fill more than 6 million vacant positions, according to a report published Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That means more positions were up for grabs that month than at any point in the data's nearly 17-year history.
The report also showed hiring pulled back, clocking in at just over 5 million. Voluntary quits, meanwhile, eclipsed 3 million.
What It Means:
"The stagnation in hiring and rising number of job openings suggest structural challenges beneath the ever-cyclically improving labor market," a team of researchers at Wells Fargo Securites wrote in a research note.
Indeed, analysts widely interpret the high level of vacancies and slowdown in hiring as evidence of a skills gap in the private sector. During an event hosted Wednesday by Business Roundtable, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta said there's an "obvious mismatch between worker-skills demand and supply."
"Imagine if we could match those 6.9 million [unemployed Americans] to 6 [million job openings]. The unemployment market would virtually disappear," Acosta said, referencing the number of unemployed people in the U.S. labor market in May.
For qualified candidates in high-demand industries, though, there appears to be no shortage of employment options. And quits climbing north of 3 million has been interpreted as a sign of confidence among workers who feel comfortable enough with their employment prospects to leave their jobs.
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