Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey News Release — 2011-04-13

There were 3.1 million job openings on the last business day of February 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The job openings rate (2.3 percent) increased over the month. The hires rate (3.0 percent) and total separations rate (2.9 percent) were little changed over the month. 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 February was 3.1 million, an increase from 2.7 million in January. (See table 1.) The job openings level has trended up since the end of the recession in June 2009 (as designated by the National Bureau of Economic Research) but remains well below the 4.4 million openings when the recession began in December 2007. Hires In February, the hires rate was essentially unchanged for total nonfarm, total private, and government.