Job Market
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Labor market still favors the worker, with 1.7 open jobs per each unemployed person

Report: The BLS's JOLT report shows 10.3 million open jobs
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The labor market is cooling off, but very slowly. In short, employers are still having a hard time filling all their open jobs.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Job Opening and Labors Turnover Survey (JOLTS) this morning, showing that both that the ratio of job openings to the number of unemployed ticked down in October, as did the so-called “quits” rate.

The report shows there were 10.3 million open jobs, or 1.7 jobs available for each of the 6.1 million people looking for work. That’s about 330,000 fewer openings than the previous month.

According to the BLS, “job openings decreased in state and local government, excluding education (-101,000); nondurable goods manufacturing (-95,000); and federal government (-61,000). The number of job openings increased in other services (+76,000) and in finance and insurance (+70,000).”

“Quits are generally voluntary separations initiated by the employee,” explains the report. “Therefore, the quits rate can serve as a measure of workers’ willingness or ability to leave jobs. In October, the number and rate of quits were little changed at 4.0 million and 2.6 percent, respectively.”

Read the JOLTS report yourself here.