Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey News Release — 2016-10-12

The number of job openings decreased to 5.4 million on the last business day of August, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Hires and separations were little changed at 5.2 million and 5.0 million, respectively. Within separations, the quits rate was 2.1 percent and the layoffs and discharges rate was 1.1 percent. 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. On the last business day of August, there were 5.4 million job openings, a decrease of 388,000 from July. The job openings rate was 3.6 percent in August. The number of job openings decreased over the month for total private (-348,000) and for government (-39,000). Job openings decreased in a number of industries, with the largest changes occurring in professional and business services (-223,000), durable goods manufacturing (-29,000), and arts, entertainment, and recreation (-28,000).