US job openings at 3.9m at end of August

There were 3.9 million U.S. job openings at the end of August, up 75,000 from July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday. There were 119,000 more job openings due to revisions of earlier data, the Economic Policy Institute said, noting the ratio of job seekers-to-job openings fell below 3-to-1 for the first time in nearly five years in August. "Though August was the first time the ratio of job seekers to job openings fell below 3.0-to-1 in nearly 5 years, this ratio of 2.9-to-1 matches the highest the ratio ever got in the early 2000s downturn," the Institute said in a statement. The Labor Statistics Bureau said the hires rate, 3.3 percent, and the separations rate, 3.2 percent, were little changed July to August. There were 4.5 million hires and 4.4 million job separations in August -- including quits, layoffs, discharges and other reasons jobs end. The total of separations is also referred to as turnover. The quits rate was little changed in August at 1.7 percent, including 2 percent in the private sector and 0.6 percent in the public sector. There was an increase in quits in retail trade jobs, but little change in other industries, the bureau said.