JOLTS: Job Openings & Hiring Fall Sharply in February
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
- The number of job openings move further away from March 2022 high.
- New hires decline & are well below November 2021 high.
- Layoffs & discharges fall.
The number of job openings declined 6.0% (-14.4% y/y) to 9.931 million during February from 10.563 million in January, revised from 10.824 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings & Labor Turnover report. The latest decline followed a similar January shortfall and left openings 17.4% below the March 2022 high of 12.027 million. The job openings rate (job openings as a percentage of the sum of establishment employment plus openings) fell sharply to 6.0% in February from 6.4% in January, revised from 6.5%. The series high was 7.4% in March 2022.
New hires weakened 2.6% (-9.4% y/y) to 6.163 million in February from 6.327 million in January. It left the level of new hires 9.9% below the November 2022 high of 6.843 million. The hiring rate eased to 4.0% from 4.1%. The hiring rate reached a peak of 4.6% in November 2021. The hiring rate in leisure & hospitality rose to 7.1% while in professional & business sector it fell to 4.9%. In retail trade the hiring rate fell to 4.7% while in construction it eased to 4.7%. In the factory sector the hiring rate edged higher to 3.3%.
The total number of job separations fell 1.4% (-4.1% y/y) to 5.820 million from 5.900 million in January. Layoffs and discharges, involuntary separations, declined 12.5% in February (+5.7% y/y) to 1.504 from 1.719 million. The job separation rate fell to 3.7% from 3.8%. The number of jobs quit rose 3.8% (-6.7% y/y) to 4.024 million. Fewer quits versus 2022 indicate that jobs became less readily available. Quits in the financial sector declined 23.6% y/y while in retail trade it declined 18.8% y/y. Factory sector quits fell 14.5% y/y but in the leisure & hospitality sector they rose 7.5% y/y. The quit rate edged higher to 2.6% but remained below the April 2022 high of 3.0%.
Private-sector job openings declined 6.3% (-15.0% y/y) to 8.937 million following a 5.8% January decline. The private-sector job openings rate fell to 6.3%, down from a 7.8% high in in March of last year. Leisure & hospitality job openings fell 13.9% y/y while factory sector openings weakened 16.0% y/y. Education & health services openings declined 14.2% y/y while openings in the professional & business services sector were off 19.2% y/y.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) are available in Haver's USECON database.
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.
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