May 13, 2009
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undefined(The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Number of job openings at new low
On the last business day of March, job openings in the U.S. numbered 2.7 million — the lowest job openings level since the BLS began measuring job openings over 8 years ago.
[Chart data—TXT]
The number of job openings has trended downward since mid-2007, and, at 2.7 million in March, the number of monthly job openings was down 2.1 million (or 44 percent) since the most recent high point in June 2007.
The decline in job openings was due to a significant decline in retail trade, and small declines in nearly every other industry.
These data are from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, and are seasonally adjusted. Data for March 2009 are preliminary and subject to revision. More information can be found in "Job Openings and Labor Turnover: March 2009," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 09-0507.
