Dive Brief:

• If there is an underlying message with the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLT) report, it's nothing much has changed.
• The number of job openings remained relatively stable at 5.4 million as of November 2015, and "hires and separations" also remained relatively unchanged at 5.2 million and 4.9 million respectively, the BLS reported today.
• Industry-wise, the BLS reports that job openings increased in health care and social assistance (+57,000) and decreased in retail trade (-64,000), and regionally, job openings increased in the South and decreased in the Midwest over the month of November.

Dive Insight:

The BLS numbers reflect a steady economic outlook, but some industries are faring better than others. For example, job openings rose in several industries over the year with the largest changes in health care and social assistance (+242,000) and accommodation and food services (+129,000).

Finally, hires totaled 61.2 million and separations totaled 58.6 million over the 12 months ending in November, yielding a net employment gain of 2.6 million.

Lauren Griffin, senior vice president at Adecco Staffing USA, a provider of recruitment and workforce solutions, said that since job openings exceeded the number of hires, the market continues to be a job seeker’s market.

“We saw the quits rate increase from 1.9% to 2%, which indicates that candidates are finding and moving onto better opportunities,” says Griffin, who adds that Adecco Staffing predicts that 2016 will continue to be a job seeker’s market.