Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey News Release — 2008-02-12

On the last business day of December, there were 4.0 million job openings in the United States, and the job openings rate was 2.8 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The job openings and hires rates were essentially unchanged in December. The separations rate fell to 3.1 percent in December. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the total nonfarm sector by industry and geographic region. Although the month-to-month changes in job openings, hires, and turnover data are often small, some over-the-year changes are significant. From December 2006 to December 2007, the job openings, hires, quits, and total separations rates all fell significantly for both the total nonfarm and total private sectors. (See tables 5, 6, 7, and 8.) In December, the job openings rate remained at 2.8 percent.