Frequently Asked Questions

JOLTS stands for the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It measures job openings, hires, quits, layoffs and discharges, and total separations. JOLTS is one of the Federal Reserve's most closely watched labor market indicators because it helps assess whether the economy is adding or losing jobs and how tight the labor market is.

The quits rate is the number of voluntary employee resignations during the month divided by total employment, expressed as a percentage. A high quits rate (sometimes called the 'Great Resignation' indicator) signals worker confidence, employees quit more readily when job opportunities are plentiful. A low quits rate suggests workers feel less secure switching jobs.

Layoffs and discharges are involuntary separations initiated by the employer, terminations, plant closures, mass layoffs, and discharges for cause. Total separations include all departures from employment: quits, layoffs, retirements, deaths, transfers to other establishments, and other reasons. Quits are typically the largest single component of total separations in a healthy labor market.

The job openings rate is the number of job openings on the last business day of the reference month divided by the sum of employment and job openings, expressed as a percentage. A high job openings rate relative to the unemployment rate indicates labor market tightness, more jobs available than workers to fill them.

JOLTS is released monthly, typically on the first Tuesday of each month. Each release covers data from two months prior, for example, a release in early March covers January data. PlainLabor updates automatically with each new BLS release. The most recently available data point is always shown on each page.

State-level JOLTS estimates have higher sampling variance than national figures because the sample is smaller when broken down by state. Some month-to-month changes at the state level reflect sampling variation rather than true economic shifts. For stable trend analysis at the state level, look at 3-month or 12-month averages rather than single-month changes.

No. PlainLabor is not affiliated with the BLS or any government agency. We present publicly available BLS JOLTS data in a more accessible format.