Job Openings and Labor Turnover, February 2025
Lainey Stalnaker, Data Analytics Writer
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), released monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), provides essential information on South Carolina’s labor market.[1] In February of 2025, South Carolina’s job openings per unemployed persons ratio remained steady at 0.8 and was just under the national average of 0.9. Both ratios, when accounting for revisions, have remained unchanged since October 2024.
The table below compares unemployed persons per job opening ratios in the Southeast Region.[2] There is less than one unemployed person per job opening in all states in the region except Kentucky.
| Regional Job Openings ratios | ||||||||
KY | TN | NC | SC | GA | FL | AL | MS | ||
| February 2025 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.8 | |
| February 2024 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.5 | |
Other key statistics released in the monthly JOLTS report include:
- Job openings rate: the number of positions open during the month as a percentage of all jobs and job openings.
- Hires rate: the number of people hired during the month as a percentage of total employment.
- Separations rate: the number of people separated from their jobs during the month as a percentage of total employment. The quits rate is the proportion of people who voluntarily left their jobs, and the layoffs and discharges rate is the proportion of people who involuntarily left their jobs, which may have resulted from business closures, layoffs, downsizing, or firing for cause. Separations resulting from retirements, transfers, or deaths are included in the total separations rate.
| JOLTS Key Ratio Statistics, February 2025 | ||||||||
KY | TN | NC | SC | GA | FL | AL | MS | ||
| Job Openings RATE | 5.1 | 4.3 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 5.0 | 5.1 | |
| HireS Rate | 4.1 | 3.4 | 3.0 | 4.4 | 3.2 | 5.1 | 4.0 | 3.8 | |
| Total SeparationS Rate | 3.7 | 3.8 | 3.3 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 3.6 | |
QuitS Rate | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.1 | 2.6 | 2.1 | 2.7 | 2.3 | 2.4 | |
LayoffS Rate | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 1.1 | |
In February 2025, South Carolina had the second highest hires rate in the Southeast region. The hires rate continued to exceed the total separations rate, meaning members of the labor force entered into employment more frequently than they were separated from employment. In neighboring Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, the hires rate lagged behind the separations rate.
South Carolina also had the second highest quits rate in the region. An elevated quits rate may have contributed to the increase in South Carolina’s unemployed persons per job opening ratio, which was up 0.3 points from a year earlier. Another factor potentially driving this increase could be new additions to the labor force, which would result in more people competing for jobs—at least temporarily.
[1] https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jltst.nr0.htm
[2] The Southeast Region is defined by the Department of Labor and includes Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.