The hiring rate at US businesses remained unchanged at 3% in July, according to a new survey released Wednesday by the US Labor Department, indicating that, while layoffs haven't increased, hiring is still stagnant.
The total separation rate in July was also essentially unchanged at 3%, according to the monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Total separations include voluntary quits, involuntary layoffs and discharges, and other separations, including retirements.
The survey showed that there were 3.2 million job openings on the last business day of July.
"Although the number of job openings remained below the 4.4 million openings when the recession began in December 2007, the level in July was 1.1 million openings higher than in July 2009 (the most recent trough)," the Labor Department said in a statement.
According to the survey, eight industries experienced an increase over the year in the number of job openings and the number of job openings rose in the Midwest, South, and West.
The government's JOLTS survey is a monthly r andom survey of 16,000 non-farm businesses, including factories, offices, and stores, as well as federal, state, and local governments.
In a separate unemployment data release last Friday, the Labor Department showed that the US economy did not add any jobs in August -- a weak performance that cast a cloud over the sputtering US recovery.
Non-farm payrolls were unchanged in August, the data showed -- the weakest performance in non-farm payroll since a decline in September 2010. The unemployment rate held steady at 9.1% in August, as expected.
This story is on FINS courtesy of NewsCore.