Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey News Release — 2011-02-08

There were 3.1 million job openings on the last business day of December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The job openings rate was essentially unchanged over the month at 2.3 percent. Both the hires rate and the separations rate were unchanged at 3.2 percent each in December. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the total nonfarm sector by industry and by geographic region. Job Openings The number of job openings in December was 3.1 million, which was little changed from 3.2 million in November. (See table 1.) Since the most recent series trough in July 2009, the level of job openings has risen by 0.7 million, or 31 percent. This trough immediately followed the end of the recession in June 2009 (as designated by the National Bureau of Economic Research).