Hiring fell slightly in October to just under 5.1 million jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday, marking the third straight month in which hiring fell.
The bureau published detailed jobs data indicating that new job vacancies, gross hiring, and quits were basically flat or slightly down in October.
At just under 5.1 million, hiring is lower than it was a year ago and has been trending lower. That is a sign that labor market “churn” may be slowing, although it comes against the backdrop of strong payroll job growth throughout the fall.
Wednesday’s release, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, includes detail on job creation and hiring and firing that isn’t available in the monthly jobs report, making it valuable to investors and policymakers even though it is released on a one month lag.
One reason gross hiring may be slowing is that there are simply fewer available workers ready to be hired. There were just 7.8 million unemployed workers in October, not far from the pre-recession levels. That meant that for each advertised job opening, there were only 1.4 unemployed workers, a ratio as low as in the days of the housing bubble.
Businesses are still creating jobs. At 5.5 million, advertised job openings were not too far from the all-time high of 5.8 million reached in April.
But employers may be having trouble finding workers to fill those jobs, a good problem from the perspective of the millions of families that have struggled with poor job prospects and slow wage growth in recent years. Total job separations are down year-over-year and in each of the past three months, reflecting employers’ unwillingness to let go of workers they already have on the job.
