Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey News Release — 2011-05-11

There were 3.1 million job openings on the last business day of March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The job openings rate (2.3 percent) was unchanged over the month, following a gain in February. The hires rate (3.1 percent) and the separations rate (2.9 percent) also were unchanged in March. 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. Job Openings The number of job openings in March was 3.1 million, up from 3.0 million in February. (See table 1.) This marks the first time since November 2008 that job openings have been at or above 3.0 million for two consecutive months.