Job openings little changed at 5.0 million in March; hires and separations hold steady

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary

For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Tuesday, May 12, 2015
USDL-15-0888

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

JOB OPENINGS AND LABOR TURNOVER – MARCH 2015

There were 5.0 million job openings on the last business day of March, little changed from 5.1 million in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Hires were little changed at 5.1 million in March and separations were little changed at 5.0 million. Within separations, the quits rate was 2.0 percent and the layoffs and discharges rate was 1.3 percent; both rates were little different from the previous month. 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

There were 5.0 million job openings on the last business day of March, little changed from February. The job openings rate for March was 3.4 percent. The job openings level was little changed for total private and government. Job openings decreased in health care and social assistance but increased in arts, entertainment, and recreation. The number of job 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 March for total nonfarm, total private, and government. Job openings increased over the year for many industries including professional and business services, health care and social assistance, and accommodation and food services. Job openings decreased over the year in mining and logging. The number of job openings increased over the year in all four regions. (See table 7.)

Hires

There were 5.1 million hires in March, little changed from February. The hires rate in March was 3.6 percent. The number of hires was little changed for total private and government in March. There was little or no change in the number of hires in all industries and regions over the month. (See table 2.)
....

____________
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey results for April 2015 are scheduled to be released on Tuesday, June 9, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. (EDT).

Facilities for Sensory Impaired

Information from this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: [phone], Federal Relay Services: 1-800-877-8339.

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

---

Wait: another one of these things? Yep. This is JOLTS - the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

https://twitter.com/BLS_gov

Wall Street Journal. blog linked when it goes up. Here we go; they'll have a whole bunch of charts to go with this later today.

U.S. Job Openings Slide As Hires, Separations Rise

10:23 am ET
May 12, 2015
Economics

By Jeffrey Sparshott

The number of job openings in the U.S. fell from a 14-year high in March, while the number of Americans getting hired and leaving jobs increased.

Job openings slid to just under five million in March, down from 5.1 million in February. The number of Americans actually hired to fill jobs ticked up to nearly 5.1 million in March, compared with five million in February, according to the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, known as Jolts.

The primary jobs report shows the net change in jobs. Employers added 223,000 jobs in April, a welcome rebound after March’s gain of only 85,000, the worst monthly performance in almost three years.

The Jolts report, which is only available through March, tracks the millions of Americans each month who quit a job, are laid off or start a new job.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Four Things You Need to Know About JOLTS

Four Things You Need to Know About JOLTS

by Heidi Shierholz on May 14, 2015



On the first Friday of each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases (among other things) its estimate of the number of jobs created in the previous month. These “jobs day” numbers gain a lot of media attention. Just a few days later, though, BLS releases another set of important estimates, this time from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, known as JOLTS.

This survey of business establishments ? offices, factories, stores, etc. ? provides monthly data on the number of job openings, hires and separations (separations include both layoffs and voluntary quits). While the JOLTS release doesn’t garner as much attention as the jobs day numbers, it provides crucial insight into the health of our labor market.

Since JOLTS is a less well-known survey, there are often a lot of questions about it. Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked:

{snip}