Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey News Release — 2011-09-07

There were 3.2 million job openings on the last business day of July, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The hires rate (3.0 percent) and separations rate (3.0 percent) were essentially unchanged over the month. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the nonfarm sector by industry and by geographic region. Job Openings The number of job openings in July was 3.2 million, little changed from June. (See table 1.) Although the number of job openings remained below the 4.4 million openings when the recession began in December 2007, the level in July was 1.1 million openings higher than in July 2009 (the most recent trough). The number of job openings increased over the month for manufacturing and for arts, entertainment, and recreation. The number of job openings in July (not seasonally adjusted) increased over the year for total nonfarm and total private.