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JOLTS: job openings, quits and what labor turnover reveals

How the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey defines openings, hires, quits and layoffs, how the rates are computed, and what openings and quits show since 2001.

Intermediate 8 min read By Finabase Research Updated Oct 30, 2026

On this page

What JOLTS measures
How the rates are calculated
Openings and quits since 2001
How to read JOLTS
Pitfalls and limitations
JOLTS next to other labor indicators
How Finabase does it
Frequently asked questions
Summary

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) is the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly count of the labor market's flows: how many jobs employers are trying to fill, how many people they hire, and how many leave, either by quitting or by being laid off. The The jobs report: how to read nonfarm payrolls and the two surveys tells you the net change in payrolls; JOLTS shows the much larger gross movements underneath it.

Two JOLTS numbers get most of the attention. Job openings measure demand for workers that employers have not yet met. The quits rate measures how confident workers are: people quit more when they expect to find a better job quickly. In August 2026 there were 7.1 million openings and a quits rate of 1.9%, against a record 12.3 million openings in March 2022 and a record quits rate of 3.0% in November 2021.

This guide explains the survey's definitions, how the rates are calculated, what openings and quits have done since 2001, and the limits that make JOLTS a supporting indicator rather than a headline one. For a short definition, see JOLTS.

What JOLTS measures

BLS defines each JOLTS concept precisely:

Job openings: positions open on the last business day of the month. All three conditions must hold: a specific position exists with work available (full- or part-time, permanent, short-term or seasonal); the job could start within 30 days; and the establishment is actively recruiting from outside its location, for example by advertising, accepting applications or interviewing.
Hires: every addition to the payroll during the month, including rehires, transfers in from other locations and recalls after a layoff of more than seven days.
Separations: every removal from the payroll during the month, split into:
- Quits: voluntary departures by the employee (retirements are not quits).
- Layoffs and discharges: involuntary separations initiated by the employer, including firings and layoffs lasting more than seven days.
- Other separations: retirements, transfers out, deaths and disability.

The survey samples about 21,000 nonfarm business and government establishments. Its employment figure is benchmarked each month to the payroll survey, and hires minus separations is aligned to the payroll survey's net change, so the two do not drift apart. JOLTS is released at 10:00 a.m. Eastern about a month after the reference month; October 2026 data, for example, are scheduled for December 1, 2026, nearly four weeks after the October payroll report.

How the rates are calculated

JOLTS publishes levels (in thousands) and rates. The denominators differ for openings and for the flows.

JOLTS rates

job openings rate = openings ÷ (employment + openings) × 100
hires rate        = hires ÷ employment × 100
quits rate        = quits ÷ employment × 100
layoffs rate      = layoffs and discharges ÷ employment × 100

The openings rate adds openings to the denominator because it measures the share of all jobs, filled plus unfilled, that are vacant.

A quits rate of 1.9% means that in one month, about 1.9 of every 100 employees left their job voluntarily. With roughly 159 million jobs, that is around 3 million quits a month. Monthly gross flows of that size, set against a net payroll change of tens of thousands, show how much churn sits beneath the headline.

Openings and quits since 2001

JOLTS job openings (millions) and quits rate (% of employment), monthly, seasonally adjusted, December 2000 – August 2026. BLS via FRED (JTSJOL, JTSQUR), downloaded 2026-10-30. Shaded: NBER recessions.

The chart shows the two series tracking the business cycle.

The 2007–2009 recession. Openings fell to 2.2 million in July 2009, the lowest in the series, and the quits rate bottomed at 1.2% in August 2009. When jobs are scarce, people hold on to the ones they have.
The long expansion. Both series climbed for a decade. Openings were 7.5 million in January 2019 and the quits rate averaged 2.3% that year.
2020. Openings dropped to 4.6 million and the quits rate to 1.5% in April 2020.
The 2021–2022 surge. Openings set a record of 12.3 million in March 2022, and the quits rate a record 3.0% in November 2021, when openings were 11.2 million. The period of very high quitting was widely called the "Great Resignation."
The cooling. Openings fell to 8.5 million by December 2023, 7.3 million by December 2024 and 6.9 million by August 2025, and stood at 7.1 million in August 2026. The quits rate slipped to 1.9% in December 2024 and was 1.9% in August 2026, below its 2019 level.

Quits are often read as a leading signal for Wage growth: average hourly earnings, real wages and composition: workers who change jobs usually do so for higher pay, so a high quits rate tends to go with faster wage growth, and a falling one with slower wage growth. The high quits of 2021–2022 came alongside wage growth of 5–6% in the data, and the drift back below 2% has come with wage growth slowing to 3.0% by September 2026.

How to read JOLTS

Openings measure demand; hires measure what happened

Openings are intentions. An employer can post a role it is in no hurry to fill, and online postings are cheap to leave up. Hires show whether that demand turned into jobs. A period in which openings stay high while hires fall suggests mismatches or employers being picky; falling openings with steady hires suggests a market cooling without layoffs.

Openings per unemployed person

A common gauge divides job openings by the number of unemployed people from the household survey. A ratio above 1 means more vacancies than job seekers. It is one way to summarize how tight the market is, and policymakers have used it to judge whether labor demand is running ahead of supply. Because the two pieces come from different surveys, treat the ratio as approximate.

Quits versus layoffs

Quits rise when workers feel secure; layoffs rise when employers feel insecure. Layoffs in JOLTS run a month behind the weekly Jobless claims: reading the weekly unemployment insurance report data, which are the faster read on firing. The quits rate, which has no weekly equivalent, is JOLTS's most distinctive contribution.

Why markets care

JOLTS rarely moves markets as much as payrolls, but in a period when the Fed is focused on how tight the labor market is, a large change in openings can move Treasury yields. The direction follows the usual logic: a tighter market points to firmer wage pressure and higher expected rates, a looser one to the opposite.

Pitfalls and limitations

A month older. JOLTS for a month arrives about four weeks after that month's payroll report.
Smaller sample, bigger revisions. About 21,000 establishments, against roughly 119,000 businesses and agencies in the payroll survey, so month-to-month changes in openings carry wide error bands and are revised.
Openings are soft data. What counts as "actively recruiting" depends on employers' answers; standing ads, evergreen postings and changes in how firms recruit can shift the level.
Levels across eras. Hiring practices have changed since 2001, so comparing 2026 openings with 2001 openings is less meaningful than comparing the cycle shape.

JOLTS next to other labor indicators

Indicator	Frequency, lag	Measures	Strength	Weakness
JOLTS openings	Monthly, ~1 month behind payrolls	Unfilled demand for workers	Direct read on labor demand	Soft, revised, small sample
JOLTS quits rate	Monthly, same release	Voluntary job leaving	Worker confidence, wage pressure	Lags the weekly data
JOLTS layoffs	Monthly, same release	Involuntary separations	Ties to separations accounting	Slower than claims
Nonfarm payrolls	Monthly, usually a Friday	Net job change	Large sample, timely	Net only; revisions
Jobless claims: reading the weekly unemployment insurance report	Weekly, Thursday	New benefit filings	Fastest layoff signal	Noisy week to week

How Finabase does it

Finabase does not publish JOLTS or other macro data and has no economic calendar. The chart on this page is ours, built from public BLS data on FRED as downloaded on October 30, 2026.

In the app you can follow how markets price labor-market news: the Treasury page shows yields from 1 month to 30 years, and the economy topic in Discover collects web coverage of each release.

Frequently asked questions

What does JOLTS stand for?

JOLTS stands for the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, a monthly BLS survey of about 21,000 establishments that measures openings, hires, quits, layoffs and other separations.

What counts as a job opening?

A position counts as open on the last business day of the month only if a specific job exists, it could start within 30 days, and the employer is actively recruiting from outside the establishment. Internal transfers and jobs held for recalled workers do not count.

Why is the quits rate important?

Because it shows how confident workers are. People quit more when they expect to find a better job quickly, so a high quits rate signals a tight labor market and tends to go with faster wage growth. It hit 3.0% in November 2021 and was 1.9% in August 2026.

When is JOLTS released?

At 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, about a month after the reference month. The October 2026 data are scheduled for December 1, 2026.

Summary

JOLTS measures the gross flows of the labor market: openings on the last business day of the month, and the month's hires, quits, layoffs and other separations, from a sample of about 21,000 establishments. Openings rose from 6.7 million in December 2019 to a record 12.3 million in March 2022 and fell back to about 7.1 million by August 2026; the quits rate went from 2.3% in 2019 to a record 3.0% in November 2021 and down to 1.9%. Because it is a month behind payrolls and drawn from a smaller sample, JOLTS is best used to confirm what payrolls and weekly claims suggest, with quits as a guide to wage pressure.