Job openings outnumber job seekers by almost 2-to-1, report shows

The labor market continued to favor job seekers in April, with nearly twice as many job openings as there were Americans looking for work.

According to a report released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 11.4 million job openings in April. 4.4 million Americans quit or changed jobs — a rate close to a 20-year high. Meanwhile, only 1.2 million Americans — an all-time low — were laid off.

In other words, if you don't like your job, you can probably find a better one. But if your boss doesn't like you, there's no guarantee she can replace you with someone better. "We're still very much in a worker's and job seeker's market," economist Nick Bunker told The Washington Post.

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Unemployment dropped to 3.6 percent, its lowest point since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Monday, President Biden claimed that the "job market is the strongest since the post-World War II era" with "millions of Americans getting jobs with better pay."

Not everyone was so optimistic about the report. The conservative Heritage Foundation warned that worker shortages "will translate into reduced services, limited supplies of goods, longer wait times, and potentially travel delays or cancellations this summer."