The US economy just hung up a giant “help wanted” sign

*Good news, kinda. All the indicators are up, except the hiring part. There are several theories as to why, meanwhile Latino employment remains low. VL

By Matt Phillips, Quartz

American companies want workers—they just aren’t actually hiring them yet.

That’s the conclusion one could draw from fresh readings out today for two gauges of labor demand.

One came from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ reading of Job Openings and Labor Turnover, the so-called JOLTs report. It showed that US job openings have been at highs not seen since early 2001. Openings touched 4.67 million in June, up 2.1% from May.

The job openings rate—the number job openings as a share of all employment as well as job openings—hit 3.3%, a new post-crisis high.

Meanwhile a gauge of small businesses’ intentions to hire has also surged to a fresh post-crisis high, with 13% of respondents to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business indicating their intentions to hire. That’s the largest percentage since September 2007.

So if there are job openings, and business owners intend to hire, surely they’re hiring, right? Well, not so fast.

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[Photo by Egan SnowFlickr]