Job Openings And Labor Turnover: March 2005 — 2005-05-10

The job openings rate was unchanged in March at 2.6 percent, while the hires and total separations rates were little changed at 3.7 and 3.3 percent, respectively, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. 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. On the last business day of March 2005, there were 3.6 million job openings in the United States, and the job openings rate was 2.6 percent. (See table 1.) The job openings rate was unchanged in March but has generally trended upward since September 2003. In March, the job openings rate changed significantly only for the government sector, where the rate fell slightly. The job openings rate did not change significantly in any of the regions.