American workers who changed jobs in March saw their salaries shoot up, a sign of how much companies are putting in extra effort to attract employees at a time when the labor market is offering millions of jobs for whoever is looking for a job.

The number of Oregon job openings is returning to normal levels as the state’s tight labor market begins to relax. 

Employers had about 65,000 open jobs at the end of last year, according to the latest quarterly survey from the Oregon Employment Department. That’s down 25% from a year earlier – the fourth straight period that job vacancies have declined by at least that much.

There are little signs that Americans should expect massive job losses any time soon.

Recent layoffs from the tech sector have created a sense that the jobs market may have begun to soften under the weight of high interest rates and elevated inflation. But there is evidence that Americans are learning to navigate their way around high prices and are still spending at a healthy clip, powering the economy. When job losses have emerged, businesses have absorbed them pretty quickly, economists say.

“Interesting” — one word from Elon Musk yesterday resurrected a study from earlier this year. Media and Twitter liberals predictably feigned shock and outrage. Yet the study on how “nonbinary gender pronouns” affect one’s job prospects wasted time and money to produce obvious results.

A remarkably robust U.S. labor market is coming into better balance.

Why it matters: That's the broad takeaway from not one or two, but three reports out Thursday morning that show what's happening beneath the surface of the economy.

Driving the news: The number of vacant job openings fell by 496,000 in May, the Labor Department said, suggesting a cooling of demand for workers. But the same report showed the number of workers voluntarily quitting their jobs rose by 250,000 — a sign that workers still feel empowered.

Job openings are near record highs in the US and unemployment is close to a generational low. But one category faces a tougher labor market than average: Young college graduates.

Since the start of 2021, the unemployment rate for those age 22 to 27 with a bachelor’s degree or higher has surpassed the national average every single month, according to data released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Friday. Last month, the gap stood at 0.6 percentage point.

The latest jobs data shows the Great Resignation brought on by the pandemic is still ongoing, with a near-record high of 4.4 million Americans quitting in April despite growing recession fears.

One expert explains the reasoning behind the continued reshuffling, and warns that shortages in the labor market are likely to persist for a long time.

The pandemic has prompted many people to leave the job market. Most have not turned that downtime into an opportunity to upgrade their skills, but many of those who have are finding good results.

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, Angie Champion Holland’s career in hotel construction sales fizzled. With travel severely restricted, building projects got canceled. By May, she was out of a job.

She could have stayed home. A 40-something mother of four, with three other stepchildren and two grandchildren, she had plenty to do. Instead, Ms. Holland went back to school.