Manufacturing Job Openings Climb, Driven by Durable Goods
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey: Job openings for manufacturing rose by 24,000 to 474,000 in April. At the same time, the March job openings level of 450,000 was revised downward from 462,000 in the previous report. Nondurable goods openings in April stayed the same at 153,000, while durable goods job openings moved up 25,000 to 321,000. The manufacturing job openings rate ticked up to 3.6% from 3.4% in March and was up from 2.9% the previous year. The rate for nondurable goods manufacturing was unchanged at 3.1%, and the durable goods manufacturing rate increased 0.2 percentage points to 3.9%.
In the larger economy, the number of job openings advanced to 7.6 million, a gain of 731,000 from March and 520,000 higher than the previous year. The job openings rate stepped up to 4.6% from 4.2% in March and 4.3% in April 2025. This data reflects an overall labor market that has eased back to pre-pandemic levels but continues to remain relatively tight from a historical perspective.
The number of hires in the overall economy declined 419,000 to 5.1 million in April and 275,000 below the previous year. The hires rate for the overall economy moved down 0.3 percentage points in April to 3.2%. Meanwhile, the hires rate for manufacturing edged down to 2.3% from 2.4% in March and 2.5% in April 2025. The hires rate for durable goods was unchanged at 2.1%, while the hires rate for nondurable goods fell 0.6 percentage points to 2.4%.
In the larger economy, total separations, which include quits, layoffs, discharges and other separations, decreased 399,000 from March to 5.0 million and 292,000 from the previous year. The total separations rate declined 0.3 percentage points to 3.1% for the overall economy but stayed the same for manufacturing at 2.2%, though down from 2.5% the year prior. Within that rate, layoffs and discharges edged up 5,000 in April for manufacturing, while quits ticked down by 1,000. The quit and layoff rates continued to remain lower for manufacturing than the total nonfarm sector.