Job openings rose in September, as did the number of workers leaving their positions, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday, while hiring also rose and layoffs fell.
In its monthly look at labor market slack and worker mobility, the BLS reported job openings at 7.52 million, up 333,000 from August and above the Dow Jones consensus outlook for 7.15 million.
As a share of the total workforce, the job opening rate rose to 4.5%, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous month, according to the Job Openings and Labor Force Survey. There are currently about 414,000 more job openings than workers classified as unemployed, or about 1.05 job openings for every available worker.
Openings increased in manufacturing (54,000) as well as state and local government (108,000) and professional and business services (106,000).
At the same time, the number of employees who left their jobs increased to 3.36 million, an increase of 321,000 from August and the highest level since March 2025. Severance is considered a barometer for the confidence of employees to find a new job after leaving their previous position.
“There are more job openings than unemployed people in the United States today. That doesn’t solve all the problems, but it’s a big change from a year ago,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “This is an encouraging sign that despite all the current problems with high diesel and gas prices and ongoing inflation issues, companies are slowly increasing their workforce.”
Hires rose in the month, up 131,000 to 5.4 million, while layoffs and discharges fell 127,000 to 1.64 million, the lowest since March 2025.
The report comes ahead of the October nonfarm payrolls report, which the BLS will release on Friday. Wall Street’s consensus for an increase of 59,000 after September saw a gain of just 29,000, while the unemployment rate was estimated at 4.2%.
In other economic news Tuesday, September factory orders for manufactured goods jumped 1.8%, above estimates of 1.3% after increasing just 0.3% in August.