American employers had 7.5 million open jobs at the end of September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday, about 333,000 more than in August. The job openings rate rose to 4.5% from 4.3%.
The agency's own language was more cautious than the arithmetic. The release says the number of openings was "little changed," which is how the BLS describes a monthly move that falls inside the survey's margin of error — a reminder that a single month of this series is a noisy signal. August was revised up to 7.19 million.
Hiring and quitting both picked up
Hires reached 5.4 million, a 3.4% rate, with accommodation and food services adding 158,000. Total separations were 5.3 million, a 3.3% rate.
The sharpest move was in quits — people leaving a job voluntarily, which economists read as a gauge of how confident workers are that they can find something better. Quits rose by 321,000 to 3.37 million, lifting the quits rate to 2.1% from 1.9%. Accommodation and food services accounted for most of the increase, up 197,000; arts, entertainment and recreation went the other way, down 19,000.
Layoffs and discharges fell to 1.6 million from a revised 1.77 million in August, and the layoff rate slipped to 1.0% from 1.1%. Health care and social assistance accounted for 70,000 of that decline. Openings rose by 104,000 in state and local government, excluding education.
Why the Fed is reading it
The report is the first monthly labor reading published since the Federal Open Market Committee met on October 28 and left the federal funds target range at 3.75% to 4.00%. That vote was 10-2, and the two dissents were unusual in their direction: Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack both preferred a quarter-point increase rather than a cut.
The committee's statement said "job gains have kept pace with the workforce" and that the unemployment rate "has changed little," while "inflation remains elevated." Tuesday's figures — more openings, more hiring, fewer layoffs — do nothing to weaken that reading of the labor market, which is the half of the Fed's mandate that would otherwise argue for easing.
The BLS will publish October's figures on December 1.
Reporting from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve and ANI.
