The number of job openings continued to trend down to 6.5 million in December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the month, both hires and total separations were little changed at 5.3 million each. Within separations, quits (3.2 million) were unchanged while layoffs and discharges (1.8 million) were little changed. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the total nonfarm sector, by industry, and by establishment size class. Job openings include all positions that are open on the last business day of the month. Hires and separations ... (full story)

This is a terrible reading along with a bad revision. Couple it with ISM employment, ADP, initial jobless claims and Challenger layoffs and it's a consistently bad look. If there is a silver lining, at least people aren't being laid off in the JOLTS report, but that might be changing based on the Challenger report, which is for the month after this report. The number of job openings for November was revised down by 218,000 to 6.9 million, the number of hires was revised up by 6,000 to 5.1 million, and the number of total separations was revised up by 64,000 to 5.1 million. Within separations, the number of quits was ... (full story)