It was reported by the U.S. government today that 236,000 jobs were added to the economy in February, and that the unemployment rate dropped to 7.7%. The gains in employment beat analysts’ forecasts by a wide margin. This reflected some of the same information that had been reported by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) in their index for February. All of the numbers showed that economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded for the third consecutive month in February, and that the overall economy grew for the 45th consecutive month. “All five of the PMI’s component indexes – new orders, production, employment, supplier deliveries and inventories – registered in positive territory in February. In addition, the Backlog of Orders, Exports and Imports Indexes all grew in February relative to January.”
A growing number of employers are experiencing a rise in employee turn-over as more jobs are coming open. At the same, employers are finding their positions are staying open longer because of growing trend of job offers being turned-down. This is adding to cost and complexity of dealing with any open position. This will continue be a problem as the overall active candidate pool continues to shrink, and demand increases.