Churn for the better

By R.A. | WASHINGTON

IN 2000, the Bureau of Labour Statistics introduced the Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey, a data series that added to existing figures on payroll employment and household unemployment with details on the number of job openings, hires, and job separations in the economy. This series gave economists a new and interesting look into the dynamics of business cycles during one of the deepest downturns of the century. And that, in turn, is generating a new understanding of what happens when an economy enters recession and how such times differ from the normal, healthy operation of the labour market.

One thing that has clearly emerged is that net changes in employment are small relative to the gross flows through the labour market. Millions of workers move from job-to-job every quarter, in a process economists call churn. This week's Free exchange column examines how churn changed during the Great Recession and what that change has meant for the broader economy: