U.S. job openings unexpectedly rose last month, but the strong labor market numbers could lead the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates again in June.
It is beginning to appear that the banking-sector crisis caused by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March had little effect on employers’ strong demand for workers.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has repeatedly stated that the elevated openings-to-unemployed ratio was an indication of how tight the job market was and that the ratio could be reduced without the unemployment rate rising significantly.
Unless the central bank can return levels to the pre-pandemic ratio of 1.2, which critics see as unrealistic, Fed policymakers worry that the tight labor market will put upward pressure on inflation….