Job openings rise to highest level in 16 months (causing much gnashing of teeth in GOP circles!)

from USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-06-08-jobopenings_N.htm


WASHINGTON — Job openings jumped in April to the highest level in 16 months, a sign that private employers may boost hiring in coming months.

The number of jobs advertised at the end of April rose to 3.1 million from 2.8 million in March, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That's the most openings since December 2008.

Private employers accounted for the entire net gain. The government's advertising for jobs decreased, despite the hiring of hundreds of thousands of census workers in May.

SILVER LINING: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2010-06-08-census08_ST_N.htm">Census pay may have lured workers from taking other jobs

Job openings have risen by about 740,000 since bottoming out at 2.3 million in July. But they remain far below pre-recession levels of about 4.5 million openings per month.

(more)

nt

They're be desolated by this news.

If workers are reluctant to return to Arizona, growers may find themselves short on harvesters, in which case "the crops rot in the field," says Wendy Fink-Weber, director of communications for the Western Growers Association, which represents 90 percent of fruit and vegetable growers in Arizona and California. Greens, which are a finicky crop and demand near-perfect conditions, have only about a five-day harvest window after reaching maturity. Each head of lettuce is cut and packed into boxes by hand. The intensive labor associated with growing lettuce—a $1 billion business for Arizona and the state's highest-value crop—accounts for up to 50 percent of the cost of production.

Lettuce accounts for 20% of crops grown in Arizona.

http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2010/05/will-immigration-law-doom-americas-lettuce/56534/

Yeah...that'll happen.