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Getty Images A now hiring sign is posted on the window of a business in San Francisco, California.
The number of job openings ticked up in October, and more Americans quit their jobs, both signs of a strong labor market.
The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, known as JOLTS, is released much later than the closely-watched first-Friday report on job creation, but it provides more granular detail.
Openings totaled 7.27 million in October, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That’s up from 7.03 million in September, but below all-time highs notched last year. In October, the number of manufacturing job openings ticked up, even as construction and mining and logging openings fell.
Jobs in the retail trade category jumped 17%, one of the biggest movers, but it’s likely those jobs were seasonal hires ahead of the holiday rush.
The “quit rate” was flat at 2.3%, the same as in September, but a bit below this summer’s highs. In October, 3.51 million Americans left their jobs, up from 3.47 million in September. Economists watch the number of quits as a barometer of how confident Americans are that they’ll be able to find another job.
The number of hires fell fractionally in October.
Read: As job market stays hot, wages will soon bite margins, Goldman says
