June 08, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Job openings rates by industry, April 2005

On the last business day of April 2005, there were 3.7 million job openings in the United States, and the national job openings rate was 2.7 percent.

[Chart data—TXT]

The job openings rate was little changed in April, but has generally trended upward since September 2003. In April, the job openings rate in the construction sector, 1.5 percent, was lower than in the previous month; in professional and business services the job openings rate, 4.3 percent, was higher than in March. The rates for other industries were little changed from March to April.

These data are from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey program. Find out more in Job Openings and Labor Turnover: April 2005 (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-995. The job openings rate is the number of job openings on the last business day of the month as a percent of total employment plus job openings. Data for April 2005 are preliminary.