Bernanke and the Federal Reserve like the JOLTs job openings report even though it’s a lagging indicator. The March data was just released, even though April non-farm payrolls were out last week.
Job openings were 3844K compared to 3770K expected but diminished from 3899K a month ago.
The Fed believes this report shows a better look at the trend in employment, stripping out some of the volatility from non-farm payrolls. For instance, the February and March NFP numbers were revised heavily in the latest report while JOLTs has shown a consistent positive trend.
With JOLTs, initial jobless claims and non-farm payrolls all pointing to decent job growth, don’t expect any more indications the Fed will be scaling up monthly asset purchases.
