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According to the Bureau of Statistics, the numbers of full-time and part-time jobs open at the end of August stood at 2,387,000, a decrease of 21,000 from the July total of 2,408,000, and marking the lowest level reported in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Report (JOLTS).

The job openings rate, or the proportion of job openings as a share of total employment plus openings, remained at the record low 1.8 percent set in July. Comparable data goes back to 2000, when the job openings and labor turnover survey began. The decline in job openings in August follows a larger one in July, when job openings fell by 105,000, from 2,513,000 in June.

Over the 12 months ending in August, job openings rates decreased in all industry sectors tracked by BLS except for real estate, rental, and leasing, whose rate held steady at 1.7 percent. The largest decline was seen in mining and logging (2.3 percentage points, from 3.1 percent to 0.8 percent).

Economists look at the JOLTS data as well as the Conference Board's Help Wanted Online (HWOL) as a barometer of job creation. Taken together, there are only about 3 million job openings, yet the number of unemployed workers is above 15 million.