U.S. job openings rises slightly in March

U.S. job openings grew a bit in March. It ended the month with 5.7 million openings. Professionals and business services openings witnessed a strong rise of 126,000, while mining and logging lost 8000 after some recent gains. Involuntary separations continue to be low. Employers seem to be making a strong attempt to hang onto workers in an increasingly tight labor market.

The quit rate remained stable at 2.1 percent in the month. This measure has hovered at this level for most of the last year. Even if this marks a rebound from earlier in the cycle, wages have not been successful in accelerating thus far in 2017, noted Wells Fargo.

“With a 17-year high share of small businesses reporting jobs are hard to fill, an acceleration in quits would bode well for a pick-up in wage growth later this year”, added Wells Fargo.