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Job vacancies reach historic highs, giving job-seekers bargaining power

High vacancy rates are often advantageous for students and recent grads, while new workers will be seen as more desirable and have increased bargaining power, a new report says.

By Willa Hart | July 07, 2022 at 08:28 AM
Though some economists have expressed concerns about an impending recession, the market is still hot for job seekers, according to a new analysis published by Online U. The report, which looks at data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, found that as of March 2022, there were 11.5 million job vacancies in the U.S., up from 6.2 million in March of 2020. That’s an increase of approximately 85%, representing a total job vacancy rate of 7.1%.

Not all industries have been equally affected by the lack of workers. The leisure and hospitality sector, for instance, has been hardest hit by the changes, with a total job vacancy rate of 9.7% in March of 2022 compared to 3.9% two years earlier. That burden is likely a result of how the industry was impacted by COVID-19, including widespread shutdowns and furloughs which affected many companies and workers.

Other hard-hit sectors include the mining, logging, and manufacturing industries. Manufacturing job vacancy rates more than doubled, while mining and logging vacancy rates more than tripled, between March of 2020 and March of 2022. In both cases, the report notes, the pandemic is also likely to blame: expecting a decrease in demand, both sectors made significant layoffs early on. Then, when demand unexpectedly rose, they were left struggling to rehire workers.

The analysis also notes that inflated resignation rates may be contributing to high job vacancies. Around 3% of workers quit their jobs in March of 2022, compared to only 1.8% in March of 2020. 

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