by Calculated Risk on 8/08/2017 10:07:00 AM

From the BLS: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary

The number of job openings increased to 6.2 million on the last business day of June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the month, hires and separations were little changed at 5.4 million and 5.2 million, respectively. Within separations, the quits rate and the layoffs and discharges rate were little changed at 2.1 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively. ...

The number of quits was little changed at 3.1 million in June. The quits rate was 2.1 percent. The number of quits was little changed for total private and for government. Quits decreased in finance and insurance (-21,000).
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 June, the most recent employment report was for July.

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 June to 6.163 million from 5.702 in May.  This is the highest number of job openings since this series started in December 2000.

The number of job openings (yellow) are up 11% 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").

Job openings are mostly moving sideways at a high level, and quits are increasing.  This is another strong report.