by Calculated Risk June 4, 2024, 10:00 AM
From the BLS: Job vacancies and labour mobility overview
The number of job openings on the last business day of April was little changed at 8.1 million.The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today that the number of employed persons and the total number of people who left the workforce remained almost unchanged at 5.6 million and 5.4 million, respectively, over the past month. Among those who left the workforce, the number of people who quit (3.5 million) and the number of people who were fired or laid off (1.5 million) remained almost unchanged.
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The following graph shows JOLTS job openings (black line), hiring (dark blue), layoffs, layoffs and others (red columns), and resignations (light blue columns).
The series began in December 2000.
Note: The difference between JOLTS hiring and separation is similar to the main figure for net employment in the CES (Payroll Survey). This report is for April, and this Friday’s employment report will be for May.
Click on the graph to enlarge the image.
Note that the number of jobs (dark blue) and the number of job separations (stacked red and light blue columns) are usually pretty close from month to month. This is a measure of the turnover rate in the labor market. When the blue line is above the two stacked columns, the economy is adding net jobs, and when the blue line is below the two columns, the economy is losing jobs.
The March 2020 spike in layoffs and resignations is labeled but left off the graph to better represent normal data.
The number of job openings in April fell to 8.06 million from 8.36 million in March.
The number of job openings (black) decreased by 19% compared to the previous year.
Terminations were down 3% year over year – voluntary departures. (See the light blue columns at the bottom of the chart for “Terminations” trends.)
