U.S. JOLTS: Job Openings Increase in August but Hiring Declines
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
- Openings recover modestly after two months of decline, remaining well below 2022 high.
- Hiring reverses most of earlier increase as two years of downward momentum continues.
- Job separations approach four-year low.
Job openings increased 329,000 (-14.1% y/y) during August to 8.040 million after falling 199,000 during July, revised from a 237,000 decline and dropping an unrevised 320,000 in June, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The number of job openings have been trending downward since early-2022 and the latest reading is well below the recent peak of 12.182 million reached in March 2022. The job openings rate improved to 4.8% from 4.6% in July. It remains well below a high of 7.4% in March 2022. This rate is calculated as the ratio of job openings to total nonfarm employment plus openings.
Private sector openings rose 227,000 in August (-14.5% y/y) to 7.066 million after falling 55,000 in July. The private sector job openings rate rose to 5.0% from 4.8% in July. It was 5.8% twelve months earlier and 7.9% at its peak in March 2022. The level of leisure & hospitality openings rose 8.3% (-11.6% y/y) while information openings increased 8.5% (-11.4% y/y). Private educational & health service openings weakened 1.1% (-19.4% y/y) and financial sector openings weakened 11.8% (-33.3% y/y). Trade, transportation & utilities openings increased 8.9% (-12.5% y/y) while openings in professional & business services rose 4.2% (-1.8% y/y). Manufacturing job openings edged 0.2% higher (-15.8% y/y) while construction openings surged 59.5% (-4.1% y/y). Mining & logging openings rose 8.7% (-10.7% y/y). Government sector openings improved 11.8% (-10.6% y/y).
Private sector hiring decreased 1.9% in August (-9.5% y/y) to 4.970 million after rising 3.4% in July. The private sector hiring rate held steady at 3.7% and compared to 4.1% twelve months earlier. It has been trending lower from its 7.1% high in May 2020. Leisure and hospitality hiring fell 4.2% in August (-22.4% y/y). Financial sector hiring fell 5.2% (+2.8% y/y) and the number of professional & business services jobs jumped 17.2% (3.1% y/y). Trade, transportation & utilities hiring weakened 12.8% (-12.3% y/y) while private educational & health services jobs were off 3.5% (-11.5% y/y). Information sector hiring weakened 7.7% (+9.1% y/y). Construction sector hiring dropped 5.8% (-9.6% y/y) and factory sector hiring fell 13.0% (-21.6% y/y). Government hiring held steady (-11.9% y/y) in August, including a 12.9% rebound (-18.6% y/y) in federal government hiring which recovered half of the July decline.
Total job separations fell 6.0% (-10.9% y/y) to 4.997 million in August after rising 4.5% in July. The separation rate fell to 3.1% from 3.4%. Private sector separations declined 5.8 % (-11.2% y/y) after a 4.1% July increase. Manufacturing sector separations were off 7.5% (-16.6) while construction sector separations eased 3.4% (-11.2% y/y). Trade, transportation & utilities separations fell 14.2% (-14.8% y/y) while leisure & hospitality separations were down 14.9% (-25.7% y/y). Government sector job separations fell 9.0% (-6.0% y/y).
Private sector layoffs moved 6.0% lower to 1.530 million (-3.3% y/y) in August, led by a 21.1% falloff (-20.4% y/y) in the leisure & hospitality sector. Financial sector layoffs rose 5.6% (58.3% y/y). Trade, transportation & utilities layoffs fell 6.0% (+6.5% y/y) last month. Government layoffs fell 9.3% and were down 3.7% y/y. The private sector layoff rate overall eased to 1.1% and reversed the July increase to 1.2%. The government sector layoff rate was 0.3%. Private sector quits fell 4.8% to 2.909 million (-14.2% y/y). Government quits fell 5.9% to 175,000 (-14.6% y/y). The private sector quits rate eased a reduced 2.1%, down from a high of 3.3% in April 2022.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data 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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