JOLTS Data Confirms Improving Economy

This shouldn’t come as a surprise after the last two employment situation reports, but the latest BLS release for the Job Openings Layoffs and Turnover Survey updated with December data confirms that the labor market situation improved considerably at the end of 2011. The number of unemployed people per job opening is still a long way from where it’d be in a healthy economy, but the improvement is clear. The important thing at this point is not to let optimism turn into complacency. The economy is definitely improving, but from a very bad level. Doing some more quantitative easing while the news is good would create the burst of positive expectations that we need to start making real progress.