The job picture south of the border brightened somewhat as 2015 came to a close.
Figures released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the number of job openings increased to 5.6 million on the last business day of December. Hires were little changed at 5.4 million, and separations were also fairly static at 5.1 million.
The bureau reported that within separations, the quits rate was 2.1%, and the layoffs and discharges rate was 1.1% This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the non-farm sector by industry and by four geographic regions.
The number of hires was 5.4 million in December, little changed from November. The number of hires was five million, putting that number higher than in December 2007, the first month of the recession. The hires rate was 3.7% in December 2015.
There were 3.1 million quits in December, up from November. The number of quits was 2.8 million, is now higher than in December 2007. The quits rate was 2.1% in December 2015.
