U.S. Hiring Rate is Flat Seasonally adjusted, as a percentage of total employment
The monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, provides estimates of vacancies, hires, voluntary quits and involuntary separations starting in December 2000. (The latest JOLTS numbers are from February; March numbers are due to be released this coming Friday.) The most immediately striking thing about the JOLTS numbers is how flat hiring has been for some time. February’s seasonally adjusted hiring rate — defined as hires as a percentage of total nonfarm employment — was 3.3%, the same as it’s been since October last year. In fact, there’s been no significant improvement in the hiring rate for nearly three years. By comparison, the hiring rate before the Great Recession typically was at or near 4%.
U.S. Hiring Rate is Flat  | Seasonally adjusted, as a percentage of total employment  | 5%  | 4.1%  | gnampho  | 3  | 2  | 1  | 0  | 2000 2002  | 2004  | 2010  | 2012 2014  | 2006  | 2008  | Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 