Job openings little changed at 5.5 million in September

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Economic News Release USDL-15-2165

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary
For release 10:00 a.m. (EST) Thursday, November 12, 2015

Technical information: [phone] • [e-mail] • www.bls.gov/jlt
Media contact: [phone] • [e-mail]

JOB OPENINGS AND LABOR TURNOVER – SEPTEMBER 2015

The number of job openings was little changed at 5.5 million on the last business day of September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Hires and separations were little changed at 5.0 million and 4.8 million, respectively. Within separations, the quits rate was 1.9 percent for the sixth consecutive month, and the layoffs and discharges rate remained unchanged at 1.2 percent. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the nonfarm sector by industry and by four geographic regions.

Job Openings

Job openings were little changed at 5.5 million in September. The job openings rate for September was 3.7 percent. The number of job openings was little changed in September for total private and government. Job openings increased in professional and business services (+126,000) and retail trade (+64,000). The number of openings was little changed in all four regions. (See table 1.)

The number of job openings (not seasonally adjusted) increased over the 12 months ending in September for total nonfarm and total private and was little changed for government. Job openings rose over the year for several industries with the largest increases occurring in professional and business services (+311,000), health care and social assistance (+191,000), and retail trade (+184,000). Job openings decreased over the year in mining and logging (-16,000). The number of job openings increased over the year in all four regions: South (+283,000), West (+259,000), Midwest (+208,000), and Northeast (+102,000). (See table 7.)

Hires

The number of hires was 5.0 million in September, little changed from August. The hires rate was 3.5 percent. The number of hires was little changed for total private and government in September. There was little change in the number of hires in all industries and regions over the month. (See table 2.)

Over the 12 months ending in September, the number of hires (not seasonally adjusted) was little changed for total nonfarm, total private, and government. At the industry level, hires decreased in educational services (-74,000), finance and insurance (-43,000), and mining and logging (-13,000). There was little change in the number of hires in all four regions over the year. (See table 8.)
....

Net Change in Employment

Large numbers of hires and separations occur every month throughout the business cycle. Net employment change results from the relationship between hires and separations. When the number of hires exceeds the number of separations, employment rises, even if the hires level is steady or declining. Conversely, when the number of hires is less than the number of separations, employment declines, even if the hires level is steady or rising. Over the 12 months ending in September 2015, hires totaled 60.9 million and separations totaled 58.2 million, yielding a net employment gain of 2.7 million. These totals include workers who may have been hired and separated more than once during the year.
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The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey results for October 2015 are scheduled to be released on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. (EST).

Read more: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm

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This month's WSJ blog is not up yet. I'll link to it when it is.


[center]Earlier Stuff[/center]

Labor Market Turnover Changes Little in August as Job Openings Fall Slightly

Job Openings in July Rise to Record High (DU thread)

Job Openings in July Rise to Record High

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Job Openings Rise Above 5.5 Million, But the Hiring Rate Remains Little Changed

11:03 am ET
Nov 12, 2015
Economy

Job Openings Rise Above 5.5 Million, But the Hiring Rate Remains Little Changed

By Josh Zumbrun
[e-mail]

The U.S. economy had over 5.5 million job openings as of the last business day of September, the second-highest tally of available jobs in the 15 years the Labor Department has collected this data. ... Yet what once would have been hailed as unambiguously good news has been confounded in recent years—even as job openings rise, the rate of hiring has not risen to match it. That trend continued this month, with the level of hiring declining slightly from 5.1 million to 5 million.



The Labor Department’s monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, known as Jolts, comes out with a one-month lag to the main monthly jobs report. In that report, released last week, the Labor Department reported that the economy added 271,000 jobs last month. But the Jolts report is still closely watched by economists for the look it provides at the labor markets’ underlying churn—the millions of people each month who quit one job or are laid off and the millions who are hired into a new job.

While the number of available job openings have soared to unprecedented levels, the rate of hiring and voluntary job separation remains much lower. The number of people who voluntarily quit their job and the number of people who were laid off or fired was little changed.
....

In better news, the rate of layoffs was 1.2%, near the lowest rate ever measured in the 15-year-old survey of 1.1%. This fits with other reports from the Labor Department showing that weekly filings for jobless benefits are hovering near a 40-year low.