The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has released their May 2023 figures. The highlights:

• 9.8 million job openings (down 496,000 from April)
• 5.9% job openings rate (down 0.3% from April)
• 6.2 million hires (little change from April)
• 4% rate of hires (little change from April)
• 5.9 million seperations (4 million quits & 1.6 million layoffs / discharges)
• 3.8% separations rate (little change from April)
• 0.6 unemployed people per job opening

What we know about June 2023:

• 3.6% unemployment rate (little change from May)
• 6 million unemployed persons (little change from May)
• 1.1 million people unemployed for 27 weeks or longer (18.5% of total unemployment)
• 62.6% labor force participation rate (4th consecutive month)
• 5.4 million people unemployed who want a job but weren’t actively looking or were unavailable in the preceding 4-weeks (not included in unemployment rate)
• Hourly wages for all employees rose by 12-cents (0.4%) to $33.58 in June. There has been a 4.4% increase over the last 12-months
• In June, average hourly earnings of private-sector production & nonsupervisory employees rose by 11-cents (0.4%) to $28.83
• Average workweek for all private-sector hourly employees was 34.4 hours (up 0.1 hour from May)

With only 0.6 unemployed people per job opening, recruiting and retaining enough of the right people remains a tremendous challenge for business leaders. It’s our mission to provide solutions that give business leaders an unfair competitive advantage. Contact us to learn more about our recruitment outsourcing solutions.