Job openings, the hires rate, and the separations rate remained steady in October, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report [link opens in PDF] released today.
The number of job openings on the last day of October was 3.68 million, compared to 3.55 million in September. In October 2011, there were 3.4 million openings, or 7.8% less than this year .
The job openings rate, a measure of openings relative to total employment, also remained relatively unchanged at 2.7%, up 0.1 percentage points from September.
Labor turnover is collectively defined as hires and separations rates. For October 2012, the rates were 3.2% and 3.1%, respectively, reflecting a slight gain in employment (as represented by these numbers ).
Source: U.S. Department of Labor
The Labor Department noted in its report that data for certain regions were estimated due to surveying barriers resulting from Hurricane Sandy. The Department will continue to add surveys to this month's dataset as they become available.
