JOBS FOR EVERYONE

As of last March,  job openings equal the number of people looking for jobs - 6.6 million of each - according to the Labor Dept.*  It could well happen that there will be more job openings than job seekers soon.

The problem is two-fold.  First, there is a skills mismatch, that is that there are not enough people qualified for certain jobs.  As an example of skills problem, Warren Buffet has a home building company (Oakwood Homes) that is training people to become carpenters.**  Many Mexican carpenters went home during the Great Recess and haven't come back.  Home Depot is to donate $50 million to train construction workers.**

Then there is the mobility problem.  A lot of people feel they can't move to take a job for which they are qualified.  For one thing, the job available has to pay enough to warrant a move.  You can't really move to take a minimum-pay job or maybe even one paying $10/hr.

As the figure below shows, the small business optimism index is as good as it has ever been which is another reason for job growth being likely to continue.***

Pessimism by investors in March fell markedly since its February high.  Pessimism fell to its lowest level since the first week of 2018, at 21.3 percent a drop of 7.1 percentage points, according to this week's reading from the American Association of Individual Investors Sentiment Survey.
For the year, stock-based ETFs have pulled in $82.7 billion while bond funds have seen $11.7 billion in inflows, according to FactSet.****

It looks like all systems are go, except maybe for wage gains.****.

* https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/05/08/the-u-s-now-has-a-record-6-6-million-job-openings/?utm_term=.54683ce19c04
** https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/31/desperate-for-workers-a-colorado-homebuilder-starts-a-free-school.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/03/08/exclusive-home-depot-donate-50-m-train-construction-workers-address-severe-shortage/403659002/
*** https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2018/05/11/michigan-consumer-sentiment-may-preliminary-unchanged
**** https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/16/investors-just-pumped-the-most-money-ever-into-stock-funds-for-a-single-week.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/opinion/republican-tax-cut-workers.html?