The media reports the unemployment rate each month, which is currently about 4%.  Economists normally look at the JOLTS report, which shows the number of job openings is a record high 4.2%.  In other words, there are more job openings than there are workers to fill those jobs.  This is a all-time record.  The job market is TIGHT!

Equally important, workers rarely quit a job without having another, almost always at higher pay.  A high number of quits suggests a tight job market.  About 2.2% of workers quit their jobs last month, the highest since 2001.  This also puts upward pressure on wage expenses.  The job market is TIGHT!

The increased job openings are pretty much across the spectrum.  Transportation, warehousing, information, and construction are producing the most jobs.  Education, health, wholesale trade, and finance are producing the least, relatively speaking.  The job market is TIGHT!

If you cannot find a job in this market, there is something wrong.  Either your job expectations are unreasonable or you won’t get the right training or you are unwilling to go where the jobs are and expect the jobs to come to you.  All of these reasons are called “self-sabotage,” where potential workers create their own impediments to work.  They sabotage their own job prospects.  Do you know anybody like this?

If you cannot get a job today, it is because you do not want a job enough to remove your own impediments or roadblocks .