Research & Data
U.S. employers had about 7.5 million job openings on the last business day of September, while the number of workers quitting their jobs rose by about 321,000 from August, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
The seasonally adjusted openings estimate was 7,523,000, a rate of 4.5%, up from a revised 7,190,000 (4.3%) in August. BLS described the number of openings as “little changed.” Hires and total separations also changed little, at 5.4 million and 5.3 million. The clearest move was in quits, which BLS said “increased to 3.4 million.”
The September numbers
Hires totaled 5,402,000 in September, a hires rate of 3.4%, compared with 5,271,000 (3.3%) in August. Total separations were 5,319,000, with the rate unchanged at 3.3%.
Separations break into three parts. Quits, which BLS describes as “generally voluntary separations initiated by the employee,” rose to 3,365,000 from 3,044,000 in August; BLS called the quits rate little changed at 2.1%, compared with 1.9% the month before. Over the year, quits were up 375,000 from 2,990,000 in September 2025, the only year-over-year change the release highlights.
Layoffs and discharges changed little at 1,641,000, a rate of 1.0%, down from 1,768,000 (1.1%) in August. Other separations were little changed at 313,000.
All September figures are preliminary and will be revised with the October report, which BLS has scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 10 a.m. Eastern time.
August was revised up
The August estimates moved noticeably with this release. BLS revised August job openings up by 111,000 to 7.2 million, hires up by 79,000 to 5.3 million, and total separations up by 105,000 to 5.2 million. Quits were revised down by 22,000 to 3.0 million, while layoffs and discharges were revised up by 127,000 to 1.8 million. As first published on Sept. 29, August openings had been about 7.08 million and layoffs about 1.64 million. BLS attributes monthly revisions to additional reports from businesses and government agencies and to recalculated seasonal factors.
Where the changes showed up
Restaurants and hotels drove much of the churn. In accommodation and food services, hires rose by 158,000, to 879,000, quits increased by 197,000, to 719,000, and total separations rose by 195,000. The quits rate in that industry reached 5.0%, up from 3.6% in August. Quits fell by 19,000 in arts, entertainment and recreation.
The rise in openings was concentrated in the public sector, according to the industry table. Openings in state and local government excluding education increased by 104,000, to 519,000, lifting that sector’s openings rate to 5.0% from 4.0%. Government openings overall reached 880,000. Private-sector openings were 6,644,000, a rate of 4.7%, with professional and business services at 1,310,000 and health care and social assistance at 1,479,000.
Health care and social assistance accounted for the most notable drop in dismissals: layoffs and discharges there decreased by 70,000, to 154,000, a rate of 0.6%. By establishment size, BLS said the layoffs and discharges rate decreased for establishments with 1 to 9 employees.
The South region
JOLTS publishes four Census regions, not states or metro areas, so the release gives no figures for Georgia or metro Atlanta. In the South, openings were 2,747,000 in September (a rate of 4.4%), down slightly from 2,796,000 (4.5%) in August, even as openings rose in the other three regions. Southern hires were 2,140,000 (3.6%), quits were 1,472,000 (2.5%), layoffs and discharges were 625,000 (1.0%), and total separations were 2,217,000 (3.7%).
How to read it
An opening is a position an employer is actively recruiting for on the last business day of the month; hires count everyone added to payrolls during the month. The two measures are not interchangeable, and the gap between them is not a tally of unfilled jobs. JOLTS is a sample survey, and many of the month-to-month moves fall within what BLS treats as little or no change. For workers, a rising quits figure generally reflects more people leaving jobs voluntarily, and in September that movement was concentrated in food service and lodging rather than spread evenly across the economy.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Job Openings and Labor Turnover — September 2026,” November 3, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Table 1. Job openings levels and rates by industry and region, seasonally adjusted,” November 3, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t01.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Table 2. Hires levels and rates by industry and region, seasonally adjusted,” November 3, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t02.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Table 3. Total separations levels and rates by industry and region, seasonally adjusted,” November 3, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t03.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Table 4. Quits levels and rates by industry and region, seasonally adjusted,” November 3, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t04.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Table 5. Layoffs and discharges levels and rates by industry and region, seasonally adjusted,” November 3, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t05.htm
Featured photo: Cooks work the open kitchen at Uchi, a Japanese restaurant in Houston, Texas, in April 2013. Representative image; not related to the BLS survey. Photo: Ed Schipul, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Cropped from the original.
