U.S. November job openings down from year earlier
Thursday January 30, 12:19 pm ET
WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The number of job openings in the United States at the end of November fell from a year earlier, the government reported on Thursday, as the jobs market continued to struggle.
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In its latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), the Labor Department said 2.826 million jobs were available in November, down from 3.014 million a year earlier.
Total private-sector job openings stood at 2.407 million in November, compared with 2.544 million a year ago. Manufacturing and wholesale jobs openings were up from the year-ago month, while all other major categories, including transportation and public utilities, retail, finance and services, were down.
Regionally, the report showed a year-over-year drop in job openings in the Northeast, Midwest and West, while a slight gain was seen in the South.
According to the report, the November pace of hiring fell to 2.8 percent from 3.0 percent a year earlier. Total separations, or the work force turnover rate, was 2.9 percent in November, off from 3.0 percent a year ago.
The JOLTS data are not seasonally adjusted and are issued several weeks after Labor's closely watched monthly employment report.
Labor said in its latest monthly employment report that U.S. December nonfarm payrolls plunged 101,000 while the jobless rate held steady at 6.0 percent. Data for January will be released on Feb. 7.
The government introduced the JOLTS report in July 2002 as an indicator of unmet labor demand to complement the monthly employment report. |
