ROMANS: All right. Twenty-four minutes past the hour. Against political turmoil in Washington, this is the backdrop -- the U.S. labor market is humming. Strong jobs growth, low unemployment, and now, 5.7 million job openings below a record high. That's according to Labor Department's March JOLTS report. JOLTS tracks the pace of hiring, firing, and quitting. Employers hiring proves a strong jobs market as does the report's high quit rate. What does mean high quit rate? Well, workers are reluctant to leave their jobs during economic down times but they are happy to quit right now. There's a lot of people quitting, and that shows confidence in the labor market. The March mean job report shows a slump 78,000 jobs added. This most recent jobs report was strong, along with a rebound in April could mean that month was just a fluke in March. High number of job openings also confirms a lack of skilled workers. It's something you've been hearing from executives for months now. Wages are rising nearly double the average for jobs like carpenters and electricians, that's because employees in those fields are in short supply and skills gap is holding down overall wage group, a major reason why Americans feel left out of the recovery. But bottom line from this Labor Department data: people are feeling more confident to quit their jobs, electricians and carpenters are having pay raises, very nice pay raises because there are not enough workers in that area and there's this real concern about we could fill those 5.7 million open jobs today if we had a match of the skills of people who don't have jobs right now.</s>BRIGGS: Retraining the workforce is something you don't hear enough about.</s>ROMANS: Yes, absolutely.</s>BRIGGS: All right. You'll hear enough about the firing of James Comey. The future of the Russia investigation on the minds of millions today. What's in store now that the president has fired the man leading the very probe?
U.S. Jobs Openings Near Record High.