by Calculated Risk on 6/06/2017 10:09:00 AM

From the BLS: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary

The number of job openings increased to a series high of 6.0 million on the last business day of April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the month, hires decreased to 5.1 million and separations edged down to 5.0 million. Within separations, the quits rate and the layoffs and discharges rate were little changed at 2.1 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. ...

The number of quits edged down to 3.0 million (-111,000) in April.
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 April, the most recent employment report was for May.

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 increased in April to 6.044 million from 5.785 million in March.  Job openings are at a new series high.

The number of job openings (yellow) are up 7% year-over-year.

Quits are up 4 year-over-year. These are voluntary separations. (see light blue columns at bottom of graph for trend for "quits").

This is another solid report.