BUSINESS: Research + Stats October Job Openings Fall to 8.7 Million, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Says By Staff Friday, December 8, 2023 2:33 PM Job openings fell across the U.S. in October. A report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics finds the number of job openings fell to 8.7 million, while the number of hires and separations remained steady at 5.9 million and 5.6 million, respectively. Meanwhile, within separations, quits, layoffs and discharges, the numbers remained steady at 1.6 million. The job opening rate fell by 0.3 percentage points to 5.3 percent, down 1.1 points year over year. The number of job openings in the health care and social assistance fields fell by 236,000, while the number of jobs in the finance and insurance industries fell by 168,000. Real estate, rental and leasing jobs fell by 49,000. Job openings grew in the information field by 39,000. The number of hires remained steady at 5.9 million, while the rate of hires sat at 3.7 percent.For the second consecutive month, the rate of separations remained unchained at 3.6 percent. However, the number of separations increased in the professional and business service sectors, reaching 121,000.The number of people quitting their jobs also remained steady at 3.6 million, or a rate of 2.3 percent, for the fourth consecutive month. The professional and business services sectors saw the highest number of those people quitting their jobs at 97,000.Layoffs were steady at 1.6 million, or a rate of 1.0 percent. There was little change in all industries. The number of other separations changed little in October, coming in at 377,000. Establishments with one to nine employees saw relatively little change in openings, hires and separations, while quit rates and total separations fell for businesses with 5,000 or more employees.