Guides to reading the labor market

6 min read

Healthy is not the same as large or well paid. It means employers are actively adding people, separations are not spiking, and the occupation has room to keep hiring.

5 min read

Openings count intent. Hires count outcomes. When the two diverge, the gap describes how hard it is to actually get through a process.

5 min read

JOLTS is the best monthly read on whether employers are hiring, provided you respect its limits: national, industry based, and about six weeks behind.

5 min read

Growth is a rate. Annual openings is a count. Large occupations can offer far more openings while growing slowly, and fast growing niches can offer very few.

6 min read

OEWS wages are estimates for people already employed in an occupation during a past reference period. Read the median, respect the percentile spread, and never treat it as an offer.

6 min read

Occupational data goes local through OEWS employment and concentration. Monthly demand data mostly does not, so local comparisons need care about what is being compared.

5 min read

Industry is who pays you. Occupation is what you do. The fastest data is by industry, the data that matches a job title is slower, and bridging them requires weighting.

5 min read

Unemployment measures how many people lost or lack work. It does not measure how willing employers are to hire someone new.

6 min read

A national jobs number is an aggregate for a past month across every industry. Your search happens in one occupation, one area, and this week.

5 min read

Projections answer whether an occupation has a future. Monthly demand answers whether anyone is hiring right now. Both are useful, for different decisions.