JobMarketHealth

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

JOLTS: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey

JOLTS is the monthly national read on labor demand and churn. Establishments report how many positions were open on the last business day of the month, how many people they hired, how many quit, and how many were laid off or discharged.

Used in the scoreMonthly, released about six weeks after the reference month

What it measures

  • Job openings: positions open on the last business day of the month, with work that could start within 30 days and active recruiting outside the establishment
  • Hires: everyone added to a payroll during the month
  • Quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations
  • Rates as well as levels, so months of different sizes stay comparable
  • National totals by industry, plus regional and state estimates at the total nonfarm level

What it does not measure

Most misreadings of labor data come from asking a dataset a question it was not built to answer. These are the limits worth holding onto.

  • Openings by occupation or job title. JOLTS is an industry survey, not an occupation survey
  • Metro or state level openings for a specific job
  • How many applicants competed for a given opening
  • Individual employer postings, so it cannot be reconciled against a job board count

Update cadence

Monthly, released about six weeks after the reference month.

Occupation pages name the specific release behind each figure and when it was imported, so you can see how current a number is rather than assuming it is new. More on that on about the data.

How JobMarketHealth uses it

  • Openings, hires and layoffs feed the Current Demand component of the score.
  • Layoffs and discharges are treated as a negative signal, so rising layoffs pull a score down.
  • Because JOLTS is reported by industry, the signal is weighted toward the industry mix of each occupation rather than being applied flat.

Where it sits

This dataset feeds the composite score. The weighting of each component is set out on the methodology page. Read the methodology.

Official source

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. JobMarketHealth organizes and derives from that public data and is not its publisher.

BLS notice

Statistics on this site are retrieved from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, including through its public data services. BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov. BLS does not sponsor or endorse JobMarketHealth, and our derivation and interpretation are our own. More in the data and career disclaimer.

BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey

Related guides

  • What JOLTS actually tells job seekersJOLTS helps explain whether employers are filling jobs as well as recruiting. It gives you recent market context, while the employers and vacancies you are considering still need a closer look.
  • Job openings vs hires: what the gap meansA vacancy headline can look strong even when hiring has slowed. Reading openings alongside hires helps you see both sides, as long as you keep their different counting periods in mind.

Ready to look at an occupation? Search occupations to see the score, wage context and outlook for a specific job.