Chart: Job openings data by month since September 2008

There were 2.9 million job openings on the last business day of September. The job openings rate was little changed over the month at 2.2 percent.

[Chart data]

The number of job openings in September was little changed from August. Although the month-to-month change is small, the number of job openings in September was 25 percent higher than the number at the most recent series trough in July 2009.

Even with the gains since July 2009, the number of job openings in September remained below the 4.4 million jobs open when the recession began in December 2007 (as designated by the National Bureau of Economic Research).

This data is from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey and are seasonally adjusted. Data for September 2010 is preliminary and subject to revision. For more information, see "Job Openings and Labor Turnover — September 2010" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-10-1545.