Net hiring stays low but steady in August

New JOLTS hiring and quits data was released today, and August was about the same as the previous month. Here's total hiring minus total separations:

This represents the net number of new workers. It's been heading steadily down for two years and is getting dangerously close to zero. Then again, it almost did get to zero in March and then rebounded. So who knows what it will do over the next few months?

Job openings were up, but the trend has been steadily down for over a year. Still, openings remain an impressive 2 million above their pre-pandemic level. Maybe companies could fill more of those openings if they tried raising their pay a bit.