The short answer
JOLTS tells you how much labor demand exists in an industry and how it is changing, through openings, hires, quits, and layoffs and discharges. It is useful for deciding whether this is a favorable stretch to apply. It cannot tell you openings for a specific job title, openings in your metro, or how many people you are competing with.
The four numbers worth knowing
Each month, establishments report a small set of counts. Together they describe the whole cycle of a job existing, being filled, and being vacated.
- Job openings: unfilled positions being actively recruited on the last business day of the month.
- Hires: additions to payroll during the month, including recalls.
- Quits: voluntary departures, which tend to rise when workers feel confident.
- Layoffs and discharges: involuntary separations initiated by the employer.
How to use it for timing
Rising openings with rising hires is the window you want. Falling openings with rising layoffs is the stretch where a wider search radius, more networking, and more tailored applications pay off.
Because the release lags the reference month by roughly six weeks, treat it as recent history rather than today's news. A trend over three or four months is far more reliable than a single month's move.
Four things JOLTS is not
Most misuse of JOLTS comes from asking it questions it was never designed to answer.
- It is not a job board. It does not count postings and will not match any site's listing total.
- It is not occupational. Published series are by industry.
- It is not local for detailed cuts. Broad regions only.
- It is not a competition measure. There is no applicants per opening figure in JOLTS.
Where it sits in the score
On this site, JOLTS openings, hires and layoffs feed the Current Demand component, which carries the largest weight in the Job Market Health score. Layoffs are treated as a negative signal so that a market losing people cannot look strong simply because postings are up.
Takeaways
- Use JOLTS for direction and timing, not for counting jobs in your city.
- Quits driven churn and layoff driven churn mean very different things.
- The release lags about six weeks, so read trends rather than single months.
Sources behind this guide
- JOLTSJob Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Employment ProjectionsEmployment Projections, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Put it to use
Look up a specific job to see its Job Market Health score, trend, wage context and outlook. Search occupations, or read how the score is built on the methodology page.
Keep reading
- Job openings vs hires: what the gap meansOpenings count intent. Hires count outcomes. When the two diverge, the gap describes how hard it is to actually get through a process.
- How to tell if a job market is healthyHealthy 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.