Job Openings Hit 7.52 Million as Quits Jump 10.5 Percent

Data as of November 4, 2026.

United States employers reported 7.523 million job openings on the last business day of September, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on November 4. The August figure was revised to 7.190 million from an earlier estimate of 7.079 million. The month to month increase was 333,000. The series had not printed above 7.5 million since April. The composition follows the pattern set out in the September jobs report, where a single labor print repriced the rate path.

The release lands a week after the Federal Reserve left its target range for the federal funds rate at 3.75 to 4.00 percent, and it lands two days before the October employment report. A labor market that adds openings, cuts layoffs and increases voluntary quits is not a labor market that argues for holding a policy rate steady, which is why the composition of the report matters more than the headline change.

The four lines in the release

The survey reports flows rather than a stock of jobs. Openings, hires, quits and layoffs each describe a different decision by a different party, and in September all four moved in the same direction that a strengthening labor market would produce.

Hires rose to 5.402 million from 5.271 million, an increase of 131,000. Quits rose to 3.365 million from 3.044 million, an increase of 321,000, or 10.5 percent. Layoffs and discharges fell to 1.641 million from 1.768 million, a decrease of 127,000. Openings rose at the fastest rate of the four.

The quits number carries the most information per unit of movement. A worker resigns without a destination only when the cost of searching is lower than the cost of staying, and in practice a worker resigns when another job has already been offered. A 10.5 percent monthly rise in quits is a statement about what employed people believe they can find. Layoffs falling at the same time says the separations that did happen were more often chosen than imposed.

Openings per unemployed person

The ratio that converts the survey into a labor market tightness measure is openings divided by the number of unemployed people. The household survey put unemployment at 7.109 million in September, with an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent, up from 7.031 million and 4.1 percent in August.

Divide the two and September produces 1.06 job openings for every unemployed person, up from 1.02 in August. The ratio has now moved in a narrow band for five months. In July it was 7.335 million openings against 6.916 million unemployed, or 1.06. June was 7.182 million against a lower unemployment count. The ratio has been between 1.02 and 1.06 since the summer.

That flatness is the most useful thing in the report. Openings rose 4.6 percent month over month and the ratio barely moved, because the pool of unemployed people rose at the same time. A labor market where demand and supply of workers expand together is not becoming tighter in any absolute sense. It is becoming larger. The distinction matters because the two interpretations point to different policy conclusions, and only one of them is supported by the numbers.

The revision history is worth noting separately. The August figure was initially published at 7.079 million and now reads 7.190 million, a revision of 111,000. The household survey figures move as well: August unemployment was first reported at a level that has since been revised. Every month to month comparison in this release rests on numbers that will change twice more before they settle, which is why the five month band for the tightness ratio is more reliable than any single print inside it.

What the household survey adds

Total nonfarm employment from the establishment survey stood at 159.044 million in September, up from 159.015 million in August and 158.882 million in July. The labor force participation rate was 61.8 percent, up from 61.6 and 61.4 in the two preceding months.

Rising participation explains a rising unemployment count alongside rising employment. People who enter the labor force and have not yet found work are counted as unemployed, so an improving labor market can push the unemployment rate up while it is improving. September fits that pattern exactly: employment up, participation up, unemployment up, openings up.

The participation figure also matters for the inflation question, and it is the reason the Fed has not priced in cuts. A labor market that is absorbing new entrants without accelerating wages is producing supply as well as demand, and that is the outcome that allows a central bank to treat strong hiring as compatible with a stable inflation path.

Why a September report still matters in November

The survey is published with a lag of roughly five weeks, which means the November 4 release describes the last business day of September. The last two months of labor market behaviour are not in it. That limits what it can say about the current stance of policy and does not limit what it says about direction.

The relevant comparisons are internal to the report. Against August, openings are up, hires are up, quits are up, layoffs are down. Against July, openings are up 188,000 and unemployment is up 193,000. The first comparison says demand strengthened in September. The second says the pool of available workers grew by about the same amount, which is why the tightness measure stayed put.

The October employment report, due Friday, will supply the missing months. The two releases answer different questions, and the hiring data has been shifting across sectors for months. The turnover survey describes how many doors are open. The payroll report describes how many people walked through them.

The Fed's position

The federal funds target range has been held at 3.75 to 4.00 percent. The October meeting left it unchanged. A further increase in December is the widely held expectation among forecasters, and the September turnover data supports that expectation in a specific way: it removes the argument that labor demand is cooling enough to bring inflation down on its own.

The complication is that the same report shows the labor market growing rather than tightening. An openings to unemployed ratio that has held between 1.02 and 1.06 for five months describes balance. A central bank raising rates into a balanced labor market is responding to something other than labor market pressure, and in this cycle that something is inflation that has been pushed by energy costs rather than by domestic demand.

Long term yields have already been moving without waiting for the Fed, and the pass through from policy rates to mortgage and business borrowing costs has been partial throughout the year. That gap between the policy rate and the rate households actually pay is where the September report will have its effect, if it has one, because a labor market that is not loosening removes the case for lower long rates as much as it removes the case for lower short ones.

What to watch

Three numbers on Friday: the change in nonfarm payrolls, the unemployment rate, and average hourly earnings. The first two will show whether September's strength persisted into October. The third will show whether the participation increase is holding wage growth down, which is the outcome that keeps a strong jobs number from repricing rates in either direction.

Watch the quits series in next month's turnover release as well. A second consecutive monthly increase in quits, on top of a rising participation rate, would describe a labor market that is both larger and more confident. A reversal in quits back toward 3.0 million, of the kind that changed the policy outlook earlier this year, would describe a single strong month rather than a turn.