BREAKING NEWS: Job Openings Hold in September

To view this email as a webpage, click here.

Job openings remained unexpectedly high at 9.6 million in September, according to the monthly JOLTS report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. After declining steadily from 10.3 million to 8.9 million between April and July, job openings rose sharply to 9.6 million in August. Openings increased in accommodation and food services (+141,000) and in arts, entertainment and recreation (+39,000).

The number of people quitting—a measure of worker confidence in the ability to leave one job for another—held at 3.7 million, showing that workers are not very confident to look for new opportunities. Layoffs in September remained steady at 1.5 million, which is consistent with the low levels of weekly unemployment claims data.

On Friday, the Department of Labor will report on how many jobs the U.S. economy added in October, the unemployment rate and wage gains for the month.