Job openings (6.6 million) edge down; hires and separations little changed in May

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Economic News Release USDL-18-1141
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary

For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Tuesday, July 10, 2018

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

JOB OPENINGS AND LABOR TURNOVER - MAY 2018

The number of job openings edged down to 6.6 million on the last business day of May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the month, hires and separations were little changed at 5.8 million and 5.5 million, respectively. Within separations, the quits rate and the layoffs and discharges rate were little changed at 2.4 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. 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

On the last business day of May, the job openings level edged down to 6.6 million from a revised April level of 6.8 million, a series high. The job openings rate was 4.3 percent. The number of job openings decreased for total private (-228,000) and was little changed for government. Job openings increased in federal government (+12,000) and mining and logging (+10,000) but decreased in information (-60,000) and arts, entertainment, and recreation (-27,000). The number of job openings decreased in the Northeast region. (See table 1.)

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Errors in JOLTS federal government estimates

BLS identified errors in the JOLTS federal government hires, total separations, and layoffs and discharges estimates from January 2011 forward. These data have been suppressed from the BLS database and this news release. For more information on this error and correction plans, please visit: www.bls.gov/bls/errata/jolts-errata-06122018.htm.
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Hires

The number of hires was little changed at 5.8 million in May. The hires rate was 3.9 percent. The number of hires was little changed for total private. Hires increased in health care and social assistance (+48,000). The number of hires was little changed in all four regions. (See table 2.)

Separations

Total separations includes quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations. Total separations is referred to as turnover. Quits are generally voluntary separations initiated by the employee. Therefore, the quits rate can serve as a measure of workers' willingness or ability to leave jobs. Layoffs and discharges are involuntary separations initiated by the employer. Other separations includes separations due to retirement, death, disability, and transfers to other locations of the same firm.

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The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey results for June 2018 are scheduled to be released on Tuesday, August 7, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. (EDT).

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

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JOLTS -- the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey

It comes out a few days after the Employment Report.

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[KY_EnviroGuy]

1. Thanks, mahatmakanejeeves for all your hard work.

These two headlines caught my eye on Bloomberg:

A Record Number of Americans Are Quitting Their Jobs
and
Employers Are Calling All Workers Off the Benches
But the U.S. simply doesn’t have enough people to keep its economy growing.

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-07-10/more-immigration-to-u-s-is-only-way-to-keep-economy-growing
(this is a rolling page containing several articles)

(snip - 1st article)

Americans’ confidence in employment prospects is soaring as the labor market tightens. The latest proof: A record number are voluntarily quitting to seek better jobs.

Some 3.56 million workers left positions in May, the most in data back to 2000, and up from the prior month’s 3.35 million, Labor Department data showed Tuesday.

(snip - 2nd article)

As American society increasingly self-sorts itself into political tribes, there's a growing and noteworthy exception to that trend: the labor market. A rising share of job growth is going to people who were not in the labor force. This climate forces employers to set aside historical practices and biases that may have excluded certain types of people from jobs. Political attitudes often follow the economy’s lead, raising the possibility that some ossified biases in U.S. culture could be the next to bend.

This is good news for those stuck in a mundane low-paying job, but bad news for consumers as the cost of living goes up due to tariffs and increased cost of labor. This could become a perilous, unstable situation and set us up for a crash.

..............