Meltdown 101: The JOLTS report on job openings, hiring and layoffs offers clues about economy

Meltdown 101: Mining the JOLTS for job clues

WASHINGTON — The good news is that, even in a recession, there are 2.7 million jobs available around the country, according to a government report released Tuesday. The bad news is that there are, on average, about five unemployed people for each one.

That’s one conclusion that can be drawn from the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, also known as the JOLTS report. The JOLTS tallies how many jobs employers are trying to fill each month, as well as how many people are hired, and how many are fired or quit.

It’s a reminder that even in a recession that has cost the U.S. economy millions of jobs and sent the unemployment rate to 8.9 percent, some companies are still hiring.

Still, there were fewer jobs available in March, the most recent month for which data is available, than in February, when the JOLTS said there were 3 million jobs.

And with about 13.2 million people unemployed in March, that means there were almost five people, on average, looking for work for each available job. That compares to 1.7 for each job in December 2007, when the recession began, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

What else is in this little-known report? Here are some questions and answers about the JOLTS.

Q: How can there be this many jobs available if unemployment is so high?

A: The figures reflect what economists like to call “churn” in the labor market: Millions of people are hired and let go each month, even in a slow economy. Many if not most of the 2.7 million available jobs will be filled, but then others will come open.

Overall, though, there are fewer total jobs out there than when the recession began in December 2007 — 5.7 million fewer, to be precise, according to a separate Labor Department report issued Friday.

Q: Can the JOLTS tell me where those jobs are or in what industry?

A: It only provides broad categories. On a regional basis, 977,000 of the job openings in March were in the South, while 587,000 were in the Northeast, 570,000 in the West and 510,000 in the Midwest. The report isn’t more specific than that.

By industry, 558,000 job openings were in education and health services, two industries that have fared much better than most during the current downturn. Professional and business services had 431,000 openings, while there were 352,000 government jobs available. There were 123,000 in manufacturing and 48,000 in construction.

Q: What else does JOLTS tell us?

A: It reports how many people were laid off, quit, or left their job in some other way, such as retirement. Not surprisingly, the number of people quitting has dropped sharply as the economy has slowed, to 1.6 million in March from 2.3 million in March 2008.

At the same time, layoffs and firings have made up much of the difference, increasing to 2.1 million in March from 1.5 million a year earlier.

Q: Does it give any hints that the recession is ending?

A: Not so far. Gad Levanon, senior economist at the private Conference Board, said the number of openings should start to increase a few months before the economy stops losing jobs and starts gaining them instead. But that’s unlikely to occur for at least several more months, he said.

In addition, the JOLTS lags behind many other indicators — for example, the March data was reported Tuesday, while April’s unemployment rate was reported Friday. It isn’t very up-to-date and is unlikely to provide early signs of an economic recovery.