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Job openings and hires continue to show modest changes in 2011
Guy L. Podgornik
Guy L. Podgornik is an economist in the Division of Administrative Statistics and Labor Turnover in the Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Email: podgornik.guy@bls.gov.
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data showed slight improvement in 2011, continuing a trend of modest gains since the recession ended in June 2009.1 The seasonally adjusted number of job openings—a measure of labor demand—increased from 2.2 million in July 2009 and 2.9 million in December 2010 to 3.5 million in December 2011. While the level shows improvement, it is still well below the 4.3 million recorded in December 2007 at the onset of the recession. The hires level—a measure of worker flows—increased from 3.7 million at the end of the recession to 4.2 million in December 2011. The separations level, another worker-flow measure, decreased from 4.2 million in June 2009 to 4.0 million in December 2011; the series high was 4.7 million in February 2009. The number of quits—one of the components of total separations—edged up slightly in 2011, while the number of layoffs and discharges— another component of total separations— remained near historic lows for the second year in a row.
1 See September 20, 2010 report of the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research, in which June 2009 was announced as a business cycle trough and the end of the recession that had begun in December 2007, http://www.nber.org/cycles/sept2010.html.
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
Job openings and hires show little postrecession improvement—Aug. 2011.
Job openings, hires, and separations fall during the recession.—May 2010.
Job openings and hires decline in 2008.—May 2009.
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