Manufacturing Job Openings Rise

Job openings in the manufacturing industry rose in March, increasing to 462,000 from 443,000 in February (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Last year, there were 389,000 openings in March.

Digging deeper: Durable goods openings rose to 300,000 from 291,000, while nondurable goods openings increased to 162,000 from 152,000. Both sectors have more openings than this time last year (by 41,000 and 32,000, respectively).

Hires and separations: The hiring level in manufacturing for March was 310,000, up from 282,000 in February. Total separations declined slightly to 278,000 from 288,000.

Quits inched up to 172,000 from 169,000, and layoffs and discharges declined to 89,000 from 98,000.

The wider economy: Job openings in the wider economy were relatively stable at 6.9 million in March.

Hires rose to 5.6 million while total separations remained mostly flat at 5.4 million.