(Bloomberg – The U.S. Job Openings rose in March to record heights. This indicates that employers still struggle to keep and hire employees.

The number of available positions increased to 11.5 million in the month from 11.3 million in February, the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or , showed Tuesday. A Bloomberg survey of economists forecasted 11.2million openings.

According to data from 2000, the March quit rate was at a high of 4.5million Americans. As a percentage of total employment, the quits rate (a measure of job-seekers who leavevoluntarily) rose to 3%.

The vacancy figures suggest that employers’ needs for workers remained strong in March as employers staff up to meet solid consumer demand for goods and services. The difficulty of finding skilled workers has also led to increased job openings and upward pressure on wages.

The data come ahead of Friday’s monthly jobs report from the Labor Department, which is currently forecast to show the U.S. added 390,000 jobs in April.

Jump to Openings

This was due to the growth in jobs that were created by durable goods manufacturing and retail trade. This is consistent with data released Monday by the Institute for Supply Management, showing that many manufacturers still struggle to address labor shortage problems.

Transportation, warehousing and utilities saw a decrease in vacant positions; education at the state and local level; accommodation and food service; etc.

According to JOLTS data, there were more quits in business and professional services as well as construction.

In March there were 1.9 job opportunities for each unemployed worker, an increase of 2% from February. Jerome Powell, the Chair of Federal Reserve, pointed out that this figure was an indicator of tightness in America’s labor market.

Although staffing is improving for certain companies, others still point out difficulties on earnings calls. Domino’s Pizza Inc. said last week that when adding up all of the lost operating hours in the first quarter, U.S. stores were cumulatively closed for the equivalent of almost six days.

The March hiring figures were unchanged at 6.7 millions. Leisure and hospitality saw a rise by industry.

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