News

In September, the number of job openings fell to 7.4 million, a decrease of 418,000 from the previous month and 1,864,000 from the previous year. The job openings rate decreased to 4.5%, down from 4.7% in August and 5.6% last year. This is the lowest level of job openings since January 2021 and another sign of a slowing labor market.

Job openings for manufacturing dropped by 10,000 to 481,000 in September, with the decrease of 15,000 job openings in nondurable goods outweighing the increase of 6,000 job openings in durable goods. The manufacturing job openings rate fell to 3.6%. The rate for durable goods manufacturing increased from 3.8% to 3.9%, while it decreased from 3.4% to 3.1% for nondurable goods.

The number of hires rose to 5.6 million from 5.4 million in August but are down 293,000 from the previous year. The hires rate edged up 0.1% to 3.5%. Meanwhile, the hires rate for manufacturing increased 0.4% to 2.8%. The hires rate for durable and nondurable goods rose to 2.6% and 3.0%, respectively.

Total separations, which includes quits, layoffs, discharges and other separations, rose 28,000 from August to 5.2 million but are down 326,000 from the previous year. The total separations rate stayed the same at 3.3% but rose to 2.9% from 2.5% for manufacturing. Within that rate, layoffs and discharges rose in September, while quits fell. The quit and layoff rates continue to remain lower for manufacturing than the total nonfarm sector.