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Corporate cash-hoarding continues

Even as the economy improves, corporate America continues to pile up record amounts of unused cash, Bloomberg reports.  Read more at Counterparties 

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Job openings slip slightly in September, quits decline

Job seekers stand in line to meet with prospective employers at a career fair in New York City, October 24, 2012. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Job seekers stand in line to meet with prospective employers at a career fair in New York City, October 24, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Mike Segar

NEW YORK | Tue Nov 6, 2012 11:53am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of job openings slipped slightly in September, suggesting the labor market is still recovering at a slow pace, data showed on Tuesday.

Job openings - a measure of labor demand - fell to 3.56 million from 3.66 million in August, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

The hiring rate also decreased to 3.1 percent from 3.3 percent.

Workers were less willing to leave their current employers, with the rate at which Americans quit their jobs decreasing to 1.5 percent from 1.6 percent. That rate was usually above 2 percent over the few years before the 2007-09 recession.

Tuesday's report comes as Americans cast their ballots to decide the next president after a campaign that has focused on the lackluster economy and labor market.

There were 3.4 unemployed Americans for every job opening, holding steady with 3.4 in August. Before the start of the recession, that ratio was under 2 workers for every opening.

A separate labor market report last week showed encouraging signs for October with the pace of hiring picking up, while more workers resumed the job hunt. (Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by James Dalgleish)
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Comments (3)
RachelWY wrote:
The jobs reports for both September and October have consistently shown modest growth in the economy and hiring. This has also been reflected in the higher number of employers posting job listings on sites like www.Granted.com. Personally, for an individual looking at all the data coming in from different surveys and reports, some of the information can be confusing or conflicting. Even the payroll survey vs. the household survey (both taken by the BLS) can have seemingly contradictory information: the government added 171,000 jobs last month, but the unemployment rate rose to 7.9%. This is because of the September report being overstated, of course, but it does make me wonder: for a person who doesn’t have the time or wherewithal to analyze the numbers himself, it would be incredibly easy for politicians to spin the employment numbers in their favor. I suppose that’s just politics as usual?

Overall, though, the trend seems to be slow, but steady economic growth. It’s a bit late at this point for it to have any effect on the presidential outcome (for either candidate); voters made up their mind on the economy long before the Friday jobs report.

Nov 06, 2012 11:42am EST  --  Report as abuse
Numb3rTech wrote:
I am still worried about the many thousands of people that will be laid off and have not been recorded in the official statistics per orders from the president in articles I have read. These are cuts scheduled by defense equipment makers. Any slight uptake in jobs has been due to mostly part time or minimum wage from what I have seen in my area.

Nov 06, 2012 2:51pm EST  --  Report as abuse
Rich_F wrote:
the quality and quantity of jobs is abysmal compared to the depths from which we’ve been in. these jobs are lower paying with less benefits being taken by those in the 55-64 age range. the older generation can’t “move over” because their retirement plans have been devastated over the past 5-7 years so we have a growing disconnected labor force with college kids who are drowning in education debt not having a path to prosperity. no matter who wins this election none of this will change.

Nov 06, 2012 3:41pm EST  --  Report as abuse
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