The JOLTS report at 10 am provided an update on two months' worth of data, September and October; however, the BLS noted that the September statistics are based on “partial data” due to disruptions caused by the government shutdown. Therefore, in this case, it’s worth more to look at changes over the last two months. Here are the key highlights from the October JOLTS report:

• The headline US job openings number increased to 7.67 million in October, up 443k from the August total of 7.23 million. The job openings rate jumped from 4.3% in August to 4.6% in October.
• Total private job openings increased from 6.46 million in August to 6.89 million in October, with the private job openings rate up 0.3 ppts to 4.8% over the last 2 months.
• Total hires increased just 23,000 from August to October, and total separations fell by -61,000. Within separations, total quits were down -141,000 while total layoffs and discharges increased by 129,000.
• Total private layoffs & discharges increased by 111,000 from August to October. Businesses with 10 to 49 employees and with 50 to 249 employees saw the largest increases in the private layoffs & discharges rates, up 0.2 ppts to 1.3% and up 0.3 ppts to 1.4%, respectively.

The JOLTS data looked to be a bit mixed in the October report, with a large increase in job openings being countered with a decline in quits and an increase in layoffs and discharges. Taken together, the details suggest a labor market that is no longer as overheated as it was in 2022 and early 2023, but that still retains pockets of resilience, particularly on the demand side. The continued rise in openings points to firms maintaining a need for additional workers (that they aren’t finding due to lower labor supply), yet the slowdown in quits and the uptick in layoffs indicate that workers are feeling less secure in their employment. This combination supports the narrative of a labor market that is lacking dynamism rather than weakening sharply, with hiring conditions normalizing but not collapsing as the year draws to a close.