March 11, 2010 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Hires and separations by industry, 2009

In 2009, for the third year in a row, annual levels fell for hires, total separations, quits, and other separations, while rising for layoffs and discharges.

Annual hires levels by industry, not seasonally adjusted, 2002–2009
[Chart data]

In 2009, annual hires fell to 48.7 million. During the year there were 10,009,000 hires in trade, transportation, and utilities; 8,428,000 in professional and business services; 8,313,000 in leisure and hospitality, and 6,156,000 in education and health services. There were 3,007,000 hires in State and local government in 2009, and 452,000 in Federal government.

Annual total separations, quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations levels, not seasonally adjusted, 2002–2009
[Chart data]

Annual total separations fell to 53.7 million in 2009; annual quits declined steeply to 22.0 million, annual other separations decreased slightly to 3.9 million, and annual layoffs and discharges rose to 27.8 million.

These data are from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey and are not seasonally adjusted. "Job Openings and Labor Turnover — January 2010" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-10-0282, contains more information, including monthly data for January.

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