Job Openings And Labor Turnover: April 2004 — 2004-06-09

There were 4.4 million hires and 4.0 million separations during April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The number of hires dropped by 245,000 from March to April, but remained above the number of separations for the 12th straight month. The job openings rate was unchanged at 2.3 percent in April. The series in this report include estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the total nonfarm sector by industry and geographic region. On the last business day of April, there were 3.1 million job openings in the United States, and the job openings rate (the number of job openings on the last business day of the month divided by employment plus job open- ings) was 2.3 percent. (See table 1.) The job openings rate has ranged from 2.0 to 2.4 percent since October 2001.