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Job openings and hires show little postrecession improvement
Katherine Bauer Klemmer and Robert Lazaneo
Katherine Bauer Klemmer and Robert Lazaneo are economists in the Division of Administrative Statistics and Labor Turnover in the Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Email: klemmer.katherine@bls.gov or lazaneo.robert@bls.gov.
JOLTS data show only modest labor market gains since the end of the 2007–2009 recession; the job openings and hires levels have been rising since mid-2009 but, at the end of 2010, were well below their prerecession levels
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data showed only slight improvement since June 2009, the end of the most recent recession.1 The seasonally-adjusted number of job openings—a measure of labor demand—increased from 2.4 million in June 2009 to 2.9 million in December 2010. While the level shows improvement, it is still well below the 4.4 million posted for December 2007, the onset of the recession. The hires level—a measure of worker flows—increased from 3.6 million at the end of the recession to 3.9 million in December 2010. The separations level, another worker-flow measure, decreased from 4.1 million in June 2009 to 3.8 million in December 2010.
1 See the 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 (visited June 9, 2011).
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
Job openings, hires, and separations fall during the recession.—May 2010.
Job openings and hires decline in 2008.—May 2009.
Job openings, hires, and turnover decrease in 2007—May 2008.
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