As job market tightens, education, healthcare may present opportunity

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' February Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), there were 8.7 million job openings, 3.5 million quits, and 5.8 million hires. In addition, layoffs ticked up by 1.1%. Empowered Planning founder Shinobu Hindert joins Wealth! to discuss how Americans can navigate a tightening labor market.

Hindert signals where in the job market there are the most openings: "There are so many job openings in education at all different levels from teachers to administrators and the same thing with the healthcare industry. There is a wide variety of jobs in demand and this is also trickling down to accountants, the financial industry. So there are specific in those industries, a lot of jobs are currently available."

She also recommends that job hunters reflect on their mindset: "I think the number one thing is to be flexible. And to open our minds to what skillsets you developed that AI cannot take over, but can compliment things that you're doing and allow for efficiency."

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Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

- JOLTS report. JOLTS tells us how many job openings, hirings, and separations took place in a given month. In February, we saw the number of job openings tick slightly higher but remaining relatively flat. Meanwhile, layoffs were a touch higher as well. Showing that the labor market remains tight. So how can workers navigate this environment.

Joining us now, we've got Shinobu Hindert, who is the founder of the Empowered Planning. Thank you so much for taking the time here today. First and foremost, you took a look at this report. You kind of looked through all of the different data pieces and try to get a sense of where there is still strength in the job openings out there or where there is more churn than expected. I want to just get your top line takeaway.

SHINOBU HINDERT: Things are relatively unchanged. However, employers, it's kind of shifting in their favor. They can be a little bit pickier about who they're hiring. And I think a lot of job hunters are feeling that crunch. They're trying to freshen up their own personal brand so they can become more attractive to employers where it kind of was flipped around a year ago.

- Yeah. It was interesting within the report in February, job openings increased in finance and insurance, state and local government, excluding education, arts, entertainment, recreation. All these things considered, where are there opportunities to be found in this labor market from your assessment?