Since the June 2009 end of the recession American job openings have increased 39 percent. This data representing one of the more noteworthy pieces of information from one of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) recent employment reports.  Below are BLS synopses on Job Openings and Labor Turnover for December 2011, Annual Major Work Stoppages for 2011,America’s Youth at 24 and Fourth Quarter 2011 Mass Layoffs.

There were 3.4 million job openings by the end of December 2011, up 0.3 million from November.  These December job openings adding to the 39 percent overall openings increase since the June 2009 end of theU.S.recession. Some other BLS highlights from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for December 2011:

• 3.1 percent hires rate and 3.0 percent separations rate, both unchanged over the month
• 4.0 million hires in December; this is a 12 percent increase since the June 2009 end of the recession
• Total separations rate unchanged for December in nonfarm and government positions, little change for total private sector separations
• Over the 12 months ending in December 2011 there was a net employment gain of 1.4 million.

The BLS Work Stoppages Summary for 2011 noted 19 major strikes and lockouts involving over 1,000 workers; this number significantly larger than the 11 major work stoppages in 2010.  The longest work stoppage was between the American Crystal Sugar Company and the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers, Sugar Council.  It began in August of the year and lasted throughout the rest of 2011, with 1,300 workers affected and 136,500 total workdays lost.  The largest work stoppage of the year, however, was between Verizon Communications and the Communication Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.  Involving 45,000 workers, 450,000 total workdays were lost. 

Based on information received from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, the Summary of America’s youth at age 24 highlights gender, race, and educational achievement differences.  9,000 men and women born between 1980 and 1984 were first surveyed in 1997 and interviewed for the 13^th time between 2009 and 2010.  Information on work, training, schooling, income and assets is assessed by this survey.  Some survey points:

• At age 24, 28 percent of women and 19 percent of men had received a bachelor’s degree
• High school graduates never enrolled in college were employed 75 percent of the weeks between ages 18 and 24, compared with 55 percent of high school dropouts
• Non-Hispanic whites are three times as likely as Hispanics or Latinos to have received a bachelor’s degree by 24
• At lower education levels men are more likely to be working than women

In the BLS Mass Layoffs Summary for the fourth quarter of 2011 we learn that employers in the private, nonfarm sector initiated 1,638 mass layoff events and, overall, 266, 971 workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.  Over the course of 2011 total extended mass layoff events were down from 1,999 and total associated worker separations were down from 338,643.  Since 2005, total events and separations were at their lowest fourth quarter rates.  Manufacturing sector events and separations dropped to their lowest fourth quarter rates in program history. Again since program history, permanent worksite closures were the reason for only 5 percent of extended mass layoff events in 2011’s fourth quarter.

Author: Pete Marino

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Department of Labor releases several employment-focused reports for last quarter of 2011

Tags: DOL, labor stats