Global| Aug 07 2018U.S. JOLTS: Job Openings Rate Stabilizes; Hiring Rate Declines
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the total job openings rate during June held steady m/m at 4.3%. It remained higher than the 4.0% rate twelve months earlier. (The job openings rate is the job openings level as a percent [...]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the total job openings rate during June held steady m/m at 4.3%. It remained higher than the 4.0% rate twelve months earlier. (The job openings rate is the job openings level as a percent of total employment plus the job openings level.) The hiring rate fell to 3.8% after rising to an eleven-year high of 3.9% in May.
The private-sector job openings rate held at 4.3% in June, down slightly from April's downwardly revised expansion high of 4.4%. The rate declined in professional & business services (5.1%) and trade, transportation & utilities (4.4%). The rate rose in education & health services (5.2%), education & health services (5.2%), leisure & hospitality (5.2%), construction (3.5%), manufacturing (3.7%) and government (2.7%).
The level of job openings held steady (+8.8% y/y) following a 2.6% May decline. Private-sector openings also were unchanged (8.6% y/y) at 6.053 million. Job openings increased 30.2% y/y in construction and 21.1% y/y in trade, transportation & utilities. Factory sector job openings rose 17.3% y/y, leisure & hospitality openings gained 8.7% y/y and openings in education & health services increased 6.6% y/y. Job openings in professional & business services eased 1.5% y/y. Government sector job openings increased 10.5% y/y.
The private-sector hiring rate in June eased to 4.2% from its eleven-year high of 4.3%. The rate slipped in leisure & hospitality (6.4%), professional & business services (5.6%), construction (5.1%) and education & health services (3.0%). The hiring rate held steady in trade, transportation & utilities (4.0%) and manufacturing (2.8%).
Total hiring rose a lessened 3.4% y/y. Hiring in the private sector also gained 3.4% y/y as the number of education & health services jobs improved 8.4% y/y, factory sector hiring rose 7.7% y/y and construction sector employment increased 5.5% y/y. Showing lesser improvement were professional & business jobs which gained 1.7% y/y and leisure & hospitality hiring which posted a lessened 0.4% y/y gain, following earlier strength.
The overall job separations rate rose m/m in June to 3.7%. It increased to 4.1% in the private sector, and equaled the expansion high. The level of overall separations rose a steady 3.9% y/y, 23.6% y/y in the information sector and 18.4% y/y in financial activities. They rose just 3.8% y/y in manufacturing and 0.3% y/y in professional & business services.
The level of layoffs declined 2.8% y/y, keeping the 1.2% layoff rate down from a 2015 high of 1.4%. In the private sector, the layoff rate fell to 1.3%, but it was only 0.9% in manufacturing as well as in financial activities.
The Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) survey dates to December 2000 and the figures are available in Haver's USECON database.
| JOLTS (Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey, SA) | Jun | May | Apr | Jun'17 | Jun'16 | Jun'15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Job Openings, Total | ||||||
| Rate (%) | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.0 | 3.8 | 3.5 |
| Total (000s) | 6,662 | 6,659 | 6,840 | 6,125 | 5,651 | 5,165 |
| Hires, Total | ||||||
| Rate (%) | 3.8 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 3.7 | 3.6 | 3.6 |
| Total (000s) | 5,651 | 5,747 | 5,581 | 5,467 | 5,236 | 5,132 |
| Layoffs & Discharges, Total | ||||||
| Rate (%) | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.3 |
| Total (000s) | 1,638 | 1,538 | 1,640 | 1,668 | 1,519 | 1,675 |
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
