BLS U S Bureau of Labor Statistics : Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey

For release 10:00 a.m. (EST) Tuesday, January 8, 2019

USDL-19-0017

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JOB OPENINGS AND LABOR TURNOVER - NOVEMBER 2018

The number of job openings fell to 6.9 million on the last business day of November, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the month, hires edged down to 5.7 million, quits edged down to 3.4 million, and total separations were little changed at 5.5 million. Within separations, the quits rate and the layoffs and discharges rate were unchanged at 2.3 percent and 1.2 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.

Job Openings

On the last business day of November, the job openings level fell to 6.9 million (-243,000). The job openings rate was 4.4 percent. The number of job openings decreased for total private (-237,000) and was little changed for government. Job openings increased in transportation, warehousing, and utilities (+40,000). The job openings level decreased in a number of industries, with the largest decreases in other services (-66,000) and construction (-45,000). Job openings fell in the West region. (See table 1.)

Hires

The number of hires edged down to 5.7 million (-218,000) in November. The hires rate was 3.8 percent. The hires level fell for total private (-236,000) and was little changed for government. Hires increased in federal government (+8,000) but decreased in professional and business services (-167,000). The number of hires decreased in the South region. (See table 2.)

Separations

Total separations includes quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations. Total separations is referred to as turnover. Quits are generally voluntary separations initiated by the employee. Therefore, the quits rate can serve as a measure of workers' willingness or ability to leave jobs. Layoffs and discharges are involuntary separations initiated by the employer. Other separations includes separations due to retirement, death, disability, and transfers to other locations of the same firm.

The number of total separations was little changed at 5.5 million in November. The total separations rate was 3.7 percent. The number of total separations was little changed for total private and for government. Total separations decreased in professional and business services (-122,000) and in accommodation and food services (-88,000). The number of total separations was little changed in all four regions. (See table 3.)

The number of quits edged down in November to 3.4 million (-112,000). The quits rate was 2.3 percent. The quits level edged down for total private (-122,000) and was little changed for government. Quits fell in professional and business services (-84,000) and in accommodation and food services (-62,000). The number of quits was little changed in all four regions. (See table 4.)

The number of layoffs and discharges was little changed in November at 1.8 million. The layoffs and discharges rate was 1.2 percent. The layoffs and discharges level was little changed for total private and for government. Layoffs and discharges increased in educational services (+17,000). The number of layoffs and discharges was little changed in all four regions. (See table 5.)

The number of other separations was little changed at 332,000 in November. The other separations level was little changed for total private and for government. Other separations increased in arts, entertainment, and recreation (+5,000) and in federal government (+4,000), but decreased in professional and business services (-22,000). The number of other separations increased in the Northeast region, but decreased in the Midwest and West regions. (See table 6.)

Net Change in Employment

Large numbers of hires and separations occur every month throughout the business cycle. Net employment change results from the relationship between hires and separations. When the number of hires exceeds the number of separations, employment rises, even if the hires level is steady or declining. Conversely, when the number of hires is less than the number of separations, employment declines, even if the hires level is steady or rising. Over the 12 months ending in November, hires totaled 68.0 million and separations totaled 65.6 million, yielding a net employment gain of 2.4 million. These totals include workers who may have been hired and separated more than once during the year.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey results for December 2018 are scheduled to be released on Tuesday, February 12, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. (EST).

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Table A. Job openings, hires, and total separations by industry, seasonally adjusted

Job openings	Hires
Category	Nov.	Oct.	Nov.	Nov.	Oct.	Nov.	Nov.	Nov.
2017	2018	2018p	2017	2018	2018p	2017	2018	2018p
LEVELS BY INDUSTRY
(in thousands)
Total ...................................................	5,931	7,131	6,888	5,505	5,928	5,710	5,253	5,621	5,507
Total private .......................................	5,427	6,503	6,266	5,151	5,578	5,342	4,897	5,267	5,141
Mining and logging1 ............................	19	31	26	34	33	32	29	30	33
Construction1 ...................................	225	323	278	357	361	379	330	326	383
Manufacturing ..................................	391	504	493	344	386	378	325	350	364
Durable goods1 ..............................	248	318	324	197	229	208	177	205	207
Nondurable goods1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	143	187	169	146	157	169	148	145	157
Trade, transportation, and utilities . . . . . . . . . . .	1,187	1,322	1,275	1,058	1,219	1,152	1,015	1,172	1,125
Wholesale trade1 ............................	168	216	177	142	173	187	121	155	170
Retail trade ...................................	853	848	800	698	777	711	696	776	730
Transportation, warehousing, and
utilities1 .....................................	166	258	298	218	270	253	198	241	225
Information1 .....................................	88	150	133	79	84	83	73	73	82
Financial activities ..............................	349	400	380	192	195	213	173	181	196
Finance and insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	271	271	290	125	128	134	133	121	133
Real estate and rental and leasing1 . . . . . .	77	129	90	67	67	79	40	60	63
Professional and business services . . . . . . . . .	976	1,227	1,176	1,156	1,214	1,047	1,158	1,138	1,016
Education and health services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	1,095	1,240	1,272	691	751	768	637	694	724
Educational services1 .......................	100	102	112	107	99	102	85	95	104
Health care and social assistance . . . . . . . .	995	1,138	1,160	584	652	666	552	599	620
Leisure and hospitality ........................	865	1,008	1,003	1,038	1,119	1,060	992	1,098	1,017
Arts, entertainment, and recreation . . . . . . .	77	85	91	168	175	172	165	159	166
Accommodation and food services . . . . . . .	789	923	911	870	943	887	827	939	851
Other services1 .................................	234	296	230	204	217	231	166	206	200
Government .......................................	504	628	622	354	350	368	356	353	366
Federal1 .........................................	71	107	89	30	35	43	38	31	34
State and local .................................	432	521	533	324	315	324	318	322	332
State and local education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	157	205	217	162	161	175	156	177	179
State and local, excluding education1 . . . .	275	316	316	162	154	149	162	145	153
RATES BY INDUSTRY
(percent)
Total ...................................................	3.9	4.5	4.4	3.7	4.0	3.8	3.6	3.8	3.7
Total private .......................................	4.2	4.9	4.7	4.1	4.4	4.2	3.9	4.1	4.0
Mining and logging1 ............................	2.7	4.0	3.3	4.8	4.4	4.2	4.2	4.0	4.4
Construction1 ...................................	3.1	4.2	3.7	5.1	4.9	5.2	4.7	4.5	5.2
Manufacturing ..................................	3.0	3.8	3.7	2.7	3.0	2.9	2.6	2.7	2.8
Durable goods1 ..............................	3.1	3.8	3.9	2.5	2.9	2.6	2.3	2.6	2.6
Nondurable goods1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	2.9	3.8	3.4	3.1	3.3	3.5	3.1	3.0	3.3
Trade, transportation, and utilities . . . . . . . . . . .	4.1	4.5	4.4	3.8	4.4	4.1	3.7	4.2	4.0
Wholesale trade1 ............................	2.8	3.5	2.8	2.4	2.9	3.1	2.0	2.6	2.8
Retail trade ...................................	5.1	5.1	4.8	4.4	4.9	4.5	4.4	4.9	4.6
Transportation, warehousing, and
utilities1 .....................................	2.8	4.2	4.8	3.8	4.5	4.2	3.4	4.0	3.8
Information1 .....................................	3.1	5.1	4.6	2.8	3.0	3.0	2.6	2.6	3.0
Financial activities ..............................	3.9	4.4	4.2	2.3	2.3	2.5	2.0	2.1	2.3
Finance and insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	4.1	4.1	4.4	2.0	2.0	2.1	2.1	1.9	2.1
Real estate and rental and leasing1 . . . . . .	3.4	5.4	3.8	3.0	2.9	3.5	1.8	2.6	2.8
Professional and business services . . . . . . . . .	4.5	5.5	5.3	5.6	5.7	4.9	5.6	5.4	4.8
Education and health services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	4.5	5.0	5.1	3.0	3.2	3.2	2.7	2.9	3.0
Educational services1 .......................	2.6	2.7	2.9	2.9	2.6	2.7	2.3	2.5	2.8
Health care and social assistance . . . . . . . .	4.8	5.4	5.5	3.0	3.3	3.3	2.8	3.0	3.1
Leisure and hospitality ........................	5.1	5.8	5.7	6.4	6.8	6.4	6.1	6.7	6.2
Arts, entertainment, and recreation . . . . . . .	3.2	3.4	3.7	7.2	7.3	7.2	7.1	6.6	7.0
Accommodation and food services . . . . . . .	5.4	6.2	6.1	6.3	6.7	6.3	6.0	6.7	6.1
Other services1 .................................	3.9	4.8	3.8	3.5	3.7	3.9	2.8	3.5	3.4
See footnotes at end of table.

Table A. Job openings, hires, and total separations by industry, seasonally adjusted - Continued

Job openings	Hires
Category	Nov.	Oct.	Nov.	Nov.	Oct.	Nov.	Nov.	Nov.
2017	2018	2018p	2017	2018	2018p	2017	2018	2018p
Government .......................................	2.2	2.7	2.7	1.6	1.6	1.6	1.6	1.6	1.6
Federal1 .........................................	2.5	3.7	3.1	1.1	1.3	1.6	1.4	1.1	1.2
State and local .................................	2.2	2.6	2.7	1.7	1.6	1.7	1.6	1.6	1.7
State and local education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	1.5	1.9	2.0	1.6	1.5	1.7	1.5	1.7	1.7
State and local, excluding education1 . . . .	2.9	3.3	3.3	1.8	1.7	1.6	1.8	1.6	1.7

1 No regular seasonal movements could be identified in the job openings series, therefore, the seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted data are identical.

p Preliminary

NOTE: Total nonfarm, government, and federal government data in this table have been corrected for the months January 2011 through March 2018.

Technical Note

This news release presents statistics from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects and compiles JOLTS data monthly from a sample of nonfarm establishments. A more detailed discussion of JOLTS concepts and methodology is available online atwww.bls.gov/opub/hom/pdf/homch18.pdf.

Coverage and collection

The JOLTS program covers all private nonfarm estab-lishments, as well as federal, state, and local government entities in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Data are collected for total employment, job openings, hires, quits, layoffs and discharges, other separations, and total separations.

Concepts

Industry classification.

The industry classifications inthis release are in accordance with the 2017 version of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

Employment. Employment includes persons on the payroll who worked or received pay for the pay period that includes the 12th day of the reference month. Full-time, part-time, permanent, short-term, seasonal, salaried, and hourly employees are included, as are employees on paid vacations or other paid leave. Proprietors or partners of unincorporated businesses, unpaid family workers, or persons on leave without pay or on strike for the entire pay period, are not counted as employed. Employees of temporary help agencies, employee leasing companies, outside contractors, and consultants are counted by their employer of record, not by the establishment where they are working.

Job openings. Job openings information is collected for the last business day of the reference month. A job opening requires that: 1) a specific position exists and there is work available for that position, 2) work could start within 30 days whether or not the employer found a suitable candidate, and 3) the employer is actively recruiting from outside the establishment to fill the position. Included are full-time, part-time, permanent, short-term, and seasonal openings. Active recruiting means that the establishment is taking steps to fill a position by advertising in newspapers or on the Internet, posting help-wanted signs, accepting applications, or using other similar methods.

Jobs to be filled only by internal transfers, promotions, demotions, or recall from layoffs are excluded. Also excluded are jobs with start dates more than 30 days in the future, jobs for which employees have been hired but have not yet reported for work, and jobs to be filled by employees of temporary help agencies, employee leasingcompanies, outside contractors, or consultants. The job openings rate is computed by dividing the number of job openings by the sum of employment and job openings and multiplying that quotient by 100.

Hires. The hires level is the total number of additions to the payroll occurring at any time during the reference month, including both new and rehired employees, full-time and part-time, permanent, short-term and seasonal employees, employees recalled to the location after a layoff lasting more than 7 days, on-call or intermittent employees who returned to work after having been formally separated, and transfers from other locations. The hires count does not include transfers or promotions within the reporting site, employees returning from strike, employees of temporary help agencies or employee leasing companies, outside contractors, or consultants. The hires rate is computed by dividing the number of hires by employment and multiplying that quotient by 100.

Separations. The separations level is the total number of employment terminations occurring at any time during the reference month, and is reported by type of separation- quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations. (Some respondents are only able to report total separations.) The quits count includes voluntary separations by employees (except for retirements, which are reported as other separations). The layoffs and discharges count is comprised of involuntary separations initiated by the employer and includes layoffs with no intent to rehire; formal layoffs lasting or expected to last more than 7 days; discharges resulting from mergers, downsizing, or closings; firings or other discharges for cause; terminations of permanent or short-term employees; and terminations of seasonal employees. The other separations count includes retirements, transfers to other locations, deaths, and separations due to disability. The separations count does not include transfers within the same location or employees on strike. The separations rate is computed by dividing the number of separations by employment and multiplying that quotient by 100. The quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations rates are computed similarly.

Annual estimates. Annual levels for hires, quits, layoffs and discharges, other separations, and total separations are the sum of the 12 published monthly levels. Annual rates are computed by dividing the annual level by the Current Employment Statistics (CES) annual average employment level, and multiplying that quotient by 100. This figure will be approximately equal to the sum of the 12 monthly rates. Consistent with BLS practice, annual estimates are published only for not seasonally adjusted data and are released with the January news release each year. Annual estimates are not calculated for job openings because job openings are a stock, or point-in-time, measurement for the last business day of each month.