In September 2024, job openings decreased by 418,000 to 7.443 million, down from a revised 7.861 million in August and below the expected 7.99 million. Notable declines occurred in health care and social assistance (-178,000), state and local government (excluding education) (-79,000), and federal government (-28,000). Conversely, finance and insurance saw an increase of 85,000 job openings.
Job openings in US fall in September
Regionally, job openings fell across the board: the South lost 325,000, the West 63,000, the Midwest 24,000, and the Northeast 8,000. In terms of hiring and separations, both remained relatively stable at 5.6 million hires and 5.2 million separations. Within separations, the numbers of quits (3.1 million) and layoffs/discharges (1.8 million) showed little change.
Additionally, the number of job quits in the U.S. dropped to 3.071 million in September, the lowest level since August 2020, down from a revised 3.178 million in August. The quits rate, which measures voluntary departures as a percentage of total employment, decreased to 1.9%, down from an upwardly revised 2% in the prior month.
