The Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLT) report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said that the number of total non-farm job openings in April ticked up to 7.39 million. Construction job openings fell but real estate job openings rose for the month.
Rise in openings outpaces that in hiring
Job openings were reported to be up 191,000 openings month-over-month. In addition, the openings figure for March was revised higher by 8,000 openings, so the April openings figure is 199,000 higher than the initial level reported for March last month. However, job openings are down 228,000 openings from their year-ago level.
Hiring was reported to be up by 169,000 jobs from last month’s revised (-11,000) figure for the economy as a whole, climbing to a level of 5.57 million hires. This is the second consecutive month of increases in hiring. However, total separations also increased, rising 105,000 from last month’s revised (+46,000) figure to a level of 5.29 million. Within total separations, quits were reported to fall 4.5 percent while layoffs rose 12.3 percent. Quits represented 60.4 percent of total separations for the month, somewhat below the trailing 12-month average of 61.9 percent.
The April job openings figure represents 4.4 percent of total employment plus job openings. For comparison, the unemployment rate in April was reported to be 4.19 percent and 7.17 million people were unemployed. Another 5.54 million people said that they would like a job but were not counted as being in the labor force since they were not actively seeking employment.
For a discussion of the JOLT report and how it relates to the Employment Situation Report, please see the paragraph at the end of this article.
The excess of hiring over separations in the April JOLT report indicates an employment increase of 285,000 jobs for the month. Last month’s employment increase was revised to 221,000 jobs, down by 53,000 jobs from the gain reported last month.
Of those leaving their jobs in April, 3.19 million quit voluntarily, while 1.79 million people were involuntarily separated from their jobs. The remainder of people leaving their jobs left for other reasons, such as retirements or transfers. The portion of people quitting their jobs fell 0.1 percentage point from last month’s figure to 2.0 percent of the labor force. The involuntary separations rate was up slightly from last month’s figure at 1.1 percent.
Total non-farm JOLT data since January 2016 is shown in the first chart, below.
Construction hiring up, but so are layoffs
The next chart, below, shows the employment situation for the construction jobs market over the last 49 months. It shows that April saw a net gain of 9,000 construction jobs following two months of losses. However, last month’s preliminary loss of 11,000 construction jobs was revised higher to a loss of 16,000 jobs.
The preliminary job openings figure for April was reported to be down by 3,000 openings from last month’s revised (+3,000) figure at 248,000 openings. Openings were down 23.9 percent from last year’s level and were reported to represent 2.9 percent of construction employment plus job openings.
Hiring was reported to be up by 42,000 jobs in April from the prior month’s revised (+4,000) jobs figure to 348,000 new hires. The number of construction jobs that were filled in April was reported to be up 6.1 percent year-over-year.
Construction jobs total separations were reported to up by 17,000 jobs from the prior month’s revised (+9,000) figure to 339,000 jobs.
Quits were reported to fall by 19,000 jobs from March’s revised (+3,000) figure to a level of 147,000 jobs. Quits represented 43.4 percent of separations for the month, well below the rate for the country as a whole.
Layoffs were reported to increase by 26,000 from last month’s revised (+6,000) figure to 176,000 jobs.
“Other separations” which includes retirements and transfers, were reported to be up 10,000 at 15,000 jobs.
RERL job openings show partial recovery
The last chart shows the employment situation for the real estate and rental and leasing (RERL) jobs category. Employment in this jobs category was reported to be up 5,000 jobs for the month.
After dropping last month, the number of real estate job openings was reported to rise to 133,000 jobs at the end of April. This was 10,000 openings higher than the revised (-2,000) level reported for the month before. However, it is still below the trailing 6-month average of 150,000 openings. RERL job openings were unchanged from their year-ago level. Job openings in the RERL category represent 5.0 percent of total employment plus job openings, up 0.4 percentage points from the level in last month’s report.
Hiring in April was reported to be down by 2,000 jobs from last month’s unchanged figure at 73,000 jobs. The hiring figure was up 10.6 percent from the level of the year before.
Total separations in the RERL jobs category in April were down by 4,000 from March’s revised (+4,000) figure at 68,000 jobs.
Quits were reported to be down 5,000 from March’s revised (+5,000) figure at 39,000 jobs. Quits represented 57.4 percent of total separations. Layoffs were reported to be unchanged from March’s revised (+2,000) figure at 24,000 jobs.
The numbers given in the JOLT report are seasonally adjusted and are subject to revision. It is common for adjustments to be made in subsequent reports, particularly to the data for the most recent month. The full current JOLT report can be found here.
Comparing the reports
The US labor market is very dynamic with many people changing jobs in any given month. The JOLT report documents this dynamism by providing details about job openings, hiring and separations. However, it does not break down the jobs market into as fine categories as does the Employment Situation Report, which provides data on total employment and unemployment. For example, while the Employment Situation Report separates residential construction from other construction employment, the JOLT report does not. The Employment Situation Report separates residential property managers from other types of real estate and rental and leasing professionals, but the JOLT report does not. However, the JOLT report provides a look at what is driving the employment gains (or losses) in broad employment categories.
