Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey News Release — 2016-11-08

The number of job openings was little changed at 5.5 million on the last business day of September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Hires edged down to 5.1 million and total separations was little changed at 4.9 million. Within separations, the quits rate was unchanged at 2.1 percent and the layoffs and discharges rate decreased to 1.0 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 September, there were 5.5 million job openings, little changed from August. The job openings rate was 3.7 percent in September. The number of job openings was little changed for total private and for government. Job openings was also little changed in all industries and regions. (See table 1.) The number of hires edged down to 5.1 million in September (-187,000).