by Calculated Risk July 2, 2024, 10:00 AM
From the BLS: Job vacancies and labour mobility overview
The number of job openings on the last business day of May 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 5.8 million and 5.4 million, respectively. 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 (1.7 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). That report is for May, and this Friday’s employment report is for June.
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 increased from 7.92 million in April to 8.14 million in May.
The number of job openings (black) decreased 13% year-on-year.
Voluntary resignations were down 14% year over year (see light blue column at bottom of chart for “Resignations” trend).
