by Calculated Risk on 7/12/2016 10:13:00 AM

Note: Error corrected in graph for quits (HT Nancy).

From the BLS: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary

Job Openings decreased in May by 345,000 to 5.5 million. The prior 3-month average change in job openings was +80,000. ...
...
The number of quits was little changed in May at 2.9 million. The quits rate was 2.0 percent. Over the month, the number of quits was little changed for total private and for government.
emphasis added

The following graph shows job openings (yellow line), hires (dark blue), Layoff, Discharges and other (red column), and Quits (light blue column) from the JOLTS.

This series started in December 2000.

Note: The difference between JOLTS hires and separations is similar to the CES (payroll survey) net jobs headline numbers. This report is for May, the most recent employment report was for June.

Click on graph for larger image.


Note that hires (dark blue) and total separations (red and light blue columns stacked) are pretty close each month. This is a measure of labor market turnover.  When the blue line is above the two stacked columns, the economy is adding net jobs - when it is below the columns, the economy is losing jobs.

Jobs openings decreased in May to 5.500 million from 5.845 million in April.

The number of job openings (yellow) are up 2% year-over-year.

Quits are up 5% year-over-year. These are voluntary separations. (see light blue columns at bottom of graph for trend for "quits").

This is decent report, although job openings are below the record high set in April 2016.