According to the BLS, hires are any actual additions employers make to their payrolls. Job Openings can stay open for long (even because forgetting to close an opening), and sometimes not be filled at all.
Hires from JOLTS more than the level is used to measure the hiring rate (hires/total employment), to have an indicator how strong demand for labor is currently
This is also a survey, other than the payrolls survey (both with very low response rates), that’s why there will be discrepancies between all of them always btw.
Job openings fell to its second lowest level of 2024 in December, at 7.6 million with -556K (vs 8m expected and 8.15m in November 2024)
This is a labor market that has gradually cooled and remains in a slow-to-hire, slow-to-fire equilibrium. This report will not change the Fed assessment about the labor market, but could give them more ease to continue in a easing bias.
The 3-month moving average ticked up because Sept was even lower, at 7.4M
The share of job vacancies for unemployed workers held steady at 1.1
