Help-wanted signs in North Dakota. The numbers: The number of job openings in the U.S. rose slightly to a record 7.14 million in August, reflecting strong growth in the economy and the best labor market in decades. Job openings topped 7 million in July for the first time ever, revised figures show, and they increased again in August.

President Trump was quick to tout the record level of job openings, though he actually cited a lower number: Incredible number just out, 7,036,000 job openings. Astonishing – it’s all working! Stock Market up big on tremendous potential of USA. Also, Strong Profits. We are Number One in World, by far!

The jobs still waiting to be filled, meanwhile, easily exceeded the number of people officially classified as unemployed. The government previously said 6.23 million people were unemployed in August. Job openings topped the number of unemployed for the first time in March based on government records going back to 2000. The gap has now widened to a record 900,000. What happened: Job openings increased in government, construction, financial services, health care and professional services, the Labor Department said. Job openings declined slightly in retail, manufacturing and the restaurant business, though they were still at high levels overall. Some 5.78 million people were hired last month. About 5.71 million people lost or left their jobs, including 3.6 million who quit.

The share of people who left jobs on their own, known as the quits rate, was unchanged at a 17-year high of 2.7% among private-sector employees. That’s up sharply from 1.5% at the end of the Great Recession in 2009. The quits rate tends to rise when the economy is strong and workers feel more comfortable leaving one job for another. Job switchers often end up receiving higher pay since companies have to sweeten the pot to entice them. The number of job openings in July was revised up to 7.07 million from 6.94 million. Big picture: The U.S. is on track to create at least 2 million new jobs for the eighth year in a row, a hiring boom that’s knocked the nation’s unemployment rate down to a 48-year low of 3.7%. The surge in hiring has shrunk the pool of available labor so much that a growing number of companies say they cannot find enough skilled workers. In many cases they would have to offer better pay and benefits to attract new workers or to retain experienced ones. That’s led to rising incomes. Against that backdrop, the economy is likely to expand steadily through the next year despite ongoing trade tensions with China and rising interest rates in the U.S. What they are saying? The high number of workers who are “voluntarily quitting their jobs suggests that they are finding substantially better opportunities elsewhere in the economy,” said Julia Pollak, a labor-market economist at the online employment site ZipRecruiter