Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey News Release — 2017-12-11

The number of job openings was little changed at 6.0 million on the last business day of October, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the month, hires increased to 5.6 million and separations were little changed at 5.2 million. Within separations, the quits rate and the layoffs and discharges rate were little changed at 2.2 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. 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 October, there were 6.0 million job openings, little changed from September. Job openings have been at or near record high levels since June. The job openings rate was 3.9 percent in October. The number of job openings edged down for total private and was little changed for government.