BLS

Job openings and employment, in thousands, seasonally adjusted, December 2000 to December 2014.

There were 5.4 million job openings at the end of April, more than at any time since December 2014.

That’s when the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking job openings.

An analysis by BLS researcher Kevin Dubina paints the stat positively: “Job openings offer a procyclical measure of demand; they tend to increase during economic expansion and decrease during economic contraction.”

But other numbers released by BLS today suggest a more modest change in overall employment figures. In April, 5 million people were hired and 4.9 million left their jobs, little changed from the previous month.