The Bureau of Labor Statistics has issued its October JOLTS survey results and there is interesting news about the state of the labor market. A few insights:
1. October saw fewer job openings than September, but no meaningful changes in quits, layoffs, or discharges. So, this is another data point suggesting a little softening of employer demand, but not much weakening of worker power.
2. Very high levels of workers quitting their jobs --- 4 million -- have lasted for almost 18 months. These "quits" show that labor markets remain tight and continue to give workers meaningful choice, and therefore power, in the kinds of jobs they will accept. One related effect: quits tend to drive up wages as workers move from lower paying, lower quality jobs to better jobs.
3. The industry break-out of the decline in job openings is important. About half of the decline came from fewer local, state, and federal government job listings. Another third were in goods manufacturing. So, the decline may reflect tightening government budgets as much as slower economic growth. But the decline in manufacturing job listings means we will need to look closely at the December 2 jobs report to assess whether manufacturing jobs are declining. There has been healthy growth since the end of the recession.
You can read BLS's full JOLTS report report here.
