Rapidly strengthening US job market could feed into wages
AMERICAN businesses advertised more job vacancies this June than in any month for more than 13 years, according to figures released yesterday. This is the latest in a growing pile of data, which make the country’s economic outlook seem increasingly solid.
Firms advertised 4.67m openings two months ago, the most at any point since February 2001. The ratio of people looking for work per available opening has dropped to just more than two-to-one, the lowest recorded level in more than six years.
“The slack in the labour market is dwindling and we expect a resulting acceleration in wage growth to be one of the big stories over the next 12 months,” said Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics.
“That acceleration is ultimately why we believe the Fed will begin to raise rates in March next year,” he added.