Record 11 Million Jobs Available As Americans Shrug Off Returning To Work

The number of job openings in the U.S. jumped to 10.9 million in July, according to Department of Labor data released Friday.

The total number of unfilled jobs available set a record again, topping the 10.2 million jobs open at the end of June. The glut of open jobs comes as employers open businesses back up after widespread government-mandated and pandemic-induced shutdowns.

“The number of job openings increased to a series high of 10.9 million on the last business day of July, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Hires and total separations were little changed at 6.7 million and 5.8 million, respectively. Within separations, the quits rate was unchanged at 2.7 percent while the layoffs and discharges rate was little changed at 1.0 percent,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.

The number of open jobs in relation to the labor force continued to balloon in July. According to CNBC: “The rate of job openings measured against the total labor force swelled to 6.9% in July, up from 6.5% the previous month and 4.6% a year ago.”

The opportunity for employment contrasts sharply with the level of employment, which hit way below expectations last month as economists’ predictions for the August jobs report fell short by about half a million jobs. As The Daily Wire reported last week:

The U.S. economy floundered last month as job growth fell sharply and missed economists’ expectations by nearly half-a-million new jobs.

The economy added 235,000 jobs in August, far below economists’ predictions of 720,000 and a sharp drop in job growth from the previous two months when the economy added 962,000 jobs in June and another 1.1 million in July, according to Department of Labor data released Friday.

“That is what one would call a big, big miss,” CNN White House correspondent Phil Mattingly noted.

The unemployment rate dropped from 5.4% to 5.2%, in line with economists’ expectations. The jobs numbers are the worst posted since Biden took office in January, according to CNBC. While most sectors posted limited gains, growth in the leisure and hospitality sector stalled and remains far below its pre-pandemic employment level.

Republican lawmakers have cast much of the blame for the weak labor market recovery on federally enhanced unemployment benefits — which increased unemployment checks by $300 to $600 — that timed out on Monday for about 7 million Americans. About half of U.S. states had already ended enhanced unemployment in a bid to motivate residents back to work, according to Forbes.

Ben Shapiro, editor emeritus for The Daily Wire, also said last week that Democratic messaging around COVID-19 is also to blame. Fear-mongering from public officials has left many Americans unreasonably afraid of the virus’ continued spread.

“The problem is not the delta variant. The problem is the media, the Biden administration, and blue state politicians telling people to freak the hell out about the delta variant. This has resulted in the vaccinated freaking out and the unvaccinated acting as they always did,” Shapiro said.

“Americans divide into two groups: the worried and the unworried. Nearly the entirety of the worried are vaccinated, unjustifiably; most of the unworried are unvaccinated. It is the worried vaccinated who are calling for lockdowns and mandates and tanking the economy,” he continued. “That’s a big reason why 9 of the 10 best states for unemployment are red, and ~17 of the top 20. And it’s why all nine+DC of the worst are blue.”

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