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The U.S. now has a job opening for every unemployed person in the nation, a sign of just how far the nation has turned around from the recession that cost so many Americans their jobs nearly a decade ago, The Washington Post reported. The Labor Department reported that there were 6.6 million job openings in March, a record high — and enough for the 6.6 million Americans who were actively looking for a job that month. March marked the first time there has been a job opening for every unemployed person since the Labor Department began keeping track of job openings in 2000. White-collar businesses, construction and warehouses all expanded their recruiting in March, the Labor Department reported. It's likely that the U.S. will soon be in a situation where there are more job openings than job seekers. The number of unemployed Americans fell to 6.4 million in April. Many businesses executives say their top worry is that they can't find enough workers. Unemployment  is at the lowest level in nearly two decades, and the jobless rate for African Americans and Hispanic Americans is at an all-time low. Companies are revising their hiring practices to ensure that they do not rule out any potential good workers, especially those who might not have a college degree or people who have criminal histories and have served time in jail. Theoretically, everyone who wants a job should be able to get one now, but that's not what typically happens, even in good economic times. In a nation as big as the U.S., there will always be people who quit their jobs and take time to find new employment. There is also somewhat of a mismatch between job seekers and job openings. The people looking for work do not always have the right skills or live in a place where there are a lot of opportunities to get hired. Companies have two options these days, many economists say: They can pay more for talent; or they can expand their training programs. So far, there have been a lot of anecdotes of firms taking these actions, but it's not showing up yet in the nationwide data.

Federal Reserve officials are beginning to worry about a possibility that seems remote to workers who still feel left behind: the danger of the economy’s running too hot, destabilizing financial markets and setting off a rapid escalation in wages and prices that could force the central bank to slam the brakes on growth, The New York Times reported. Officials at the Fed have in the last few weeks escalated a public and private debate over how close the economy is to “overheating,” a condition when abnormally low unemployment can trigger spikes in inflation and destabilize financial markets. The Commerce Department will report its first estimate of first-quarter growth on Friday, and economists expect it will register around 2 percent, short of the 3 percent that President Trump has promised will deliver large wage increases to workers across the board. Forecasters expect growth to accelerate later this year, though. Those predictions, along with a recent uptick in the inflation rate, are prompting some Fed officials to push the bank to raise interest rates at a faster pace than it has been, in order to reduce the risk of overheating. Fed officials have raised their benchmark rate to a range of 1.5 to 1.75 percent in a series of carefully orchestrated increases. Their most recent economic projections suggest they expect to raise rates two more times this year and three times next year. While officials worried about overheating are pushing a faster pace of increases, other officials say it’s way too early to turn down the heat on the economy — and on workers who are still waiting for big wage increases to show up. “When we think about the economy from the aspect of monetary policy, we can’t get it right for everybody,” Eric Rosengren, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said. “We can get it right for the overall economy.” Rosengren is among those pushing for the Fed to raise interest rates more quickly than some of his colleagues would prefer, in part because he fears a situation in which rapid inflation forces the bank to raise rates drastically, tipping the economy back into recession.

The attorneys general from California, New York, and Oregon filed a motion at an appeals court seeking to protect the interests of millions of their current and future retirees after the court vacated the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule on March, Marketwatch reported. The AGs say that the Department of Labor “appears ready to abandon its effort to protect retirement investors” by failing, so far, to act to defend the rule itself, even though “every other court to issue a final judgment on the Rule’s legality has upheld it.” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said, “We think at the end of the day, the Courts will agree: anything that helps the people understand their choices for retirement is crucial. We believe the fiduciary rule is lawful in its role. And we believe if given the opportunity to litigate this, we can succeed.” Three federal district courts and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals have upheld the fiduciary rule. In addition to filing the motion to intervene, the attorneys general also filed a petition for rehearing with the full 17-judge Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to ask them to overturn the decision made by the three-judge panel.

The Labor Department is examining whether Wells Fargo & Co. has been pushing participants in low-cost corporate 401(k) plans to roll their holdings into more expensive individual retirement accounts at the bank, the Wall Street Journal reported. Labor Department investigators also are interested in whether Wells Fargo’s retirement-plan services unit pressed account holders to buy in-house funds, generating more revenue to the bank. A new federal investigation is unwelcome news for Wells Fargo, which has been dealing with an array of regulatory issues over the past two years. Just last week, it agreed to pay a $1 billion fine over claims of misconduct in its auto and mortgage lending businesses.

General Motors Co.’s South Korean unit dropped a plan to consider filing for bankruptcy after winning concessions on pay, bonuses and benefits from its labor union in a tentative deal reached today, Reuters reported. The deal will pave the way for nearly $500 million in fresh capital injection by the South Korean government, providing much-needed liquidity to GM Korea to pay employees and its suppliers, but slumping vehicle sales and low factory run-rates raise questions about its longer-term future. The concessions by GM Korea’s powerful auto union are expected to heap pressure on other auto unions for similar moves, at a time when South Korea’s auto industry is grappling with higher labor costs and sluggish demand from the United States and other markets.