Private job openings up in September
Private non-farm job “openings” increased 6.75 percent since August, climbing 23.01 percent above the level seen in September 2010
This chart shows the annual and monthly changes in private non-farm job openings since 2005. After bottoming out in 2009, openings have been slowly recovering over the past two years.
SoldAtTheTop
Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their latest monthly read of job availability and labor turnover (JOLT) showing that private non-farm job “openings” increased 6.75% since August climbing 23.01% above the level seen in September 2010 while private non-farm job “hires” increased 5.26% from August climbing 10.24% above the level seen in September 2010.
Job “layoffs and discharges” climbed 3.47% from August climbing 7.91% above the level seen last year while quitting activity increased 2.33% from August and 12.19% above the level seen in September 2010.
It’s important to understand that job “quits” are included as a component of the “separations” data series as “quitting” is a valid means of workers “separating” from employers but their inclusion tends to create an overall procyclical trend in what would otherwise be logically thought of as a countercyclical process (i.e. downturn leads to increase in separations not decrease).