Job Openings And Labor Turnover: March 2004 — 2004-05-11

The number of hires rose by 441,000 in March to 4.5 million, while the number of separations was about unchanged at 4.1 million, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The job openings rate edged up to 2.3 percent in March. The series in this report include estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the total nonfarm sector with breakouts by industry and geographic region. On the last business day of March 2004, there were 3.1 million job open- ings 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 openings) was 2.3 percent. (See table 1.) The job openings rate has ranged from 2.0 to 2.4 percent since October 2001. Over the month, the job openings rates for major industry categories showed little or no change.