Which Industries Are Hiring Fastest, JOLTS Hire Rate Rankings by Sector
The BLS JOLTS hire rate ranks every major industry by how rapidly it adds workers each month. Here is what the data shows, and how to interpret which high hire rates signal genuine growth versus structural turnover.
Key Takeaway
Accommodation and food services has consistently been the fastest-hiring sector in America, but that reflects structural turnover, not exceptional growth. The more actionable signal is hire rate in context: healthcare has seen above-average hire rates alongside genuine shortages, construction tracks closely with housing starts, and professional services hiring is a reliable economic expansion indicator. Knowing which is which changes how you read the numbers.
How to Read the Hire Rate
The hire rate is calculated as monthly hires divided by total employment in that sector, expressed as a percentage. It answers the question: "Out of every 100 workers in this industry, how many are newly added to payroll this month?"
A hire rate of 5.0% might mean very different things in two industries:
- In accommodation and food services, a 5.0% hire rate alongside a 4.5% quits rate means the industry is essentially replacing its workforce continuously, high velocity, modest net growth
- In construction, a 5.0% hire rate alongside a 1.5% quits rate and 1.5% layoff rate means net employment is growing rapidly, genuine expansion is driving the high hires
Always read the hire rate alongside the quits rate and layoffs rate. That context separates structural turnover from genuine growth.
Industry Hire Rate Rankings
The following table ranks JOLTS-covered industries by typical monthly hire rate, based on historical JOLTS series data. Rates are approximate averages in a non-recessionary environment:
| Industry | Typical Hire Rate | Primary Driver | Growth vs. Turnover |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation & Food Services | 5.0–6.5% | Seasonal, part-time, high churn | Mostly turnover |
| Retail Trade | 3.5–5.0% | Q4 seasonal, part-time workforce | Mix; Q4 surge is turnover + growth |
| Construction | 3.0–5.0% | Seasonal + housing cycle | Growth-driven when housing is hot |
| Healthcare & Social Assistance | 2.5–3.5% | Demographic demand + shortage replacement | Genuine growth + backfilling quits |
| Professional & Business Services | 2.5–3.5% | Economic expansion; temp staffing volatile | Mix; temp staffing = high turnover |
| Education & Health (combined) | 2.0–3.0% | Academic calendar + healthcare demand | September spike (school year start) |
| Manufacturing | 1.8–2.5% | Industrial cycle; durable goods orders | Growth indicator when rising |
| Finance & Insurance | 1.5–2.0% | Low turnover; specialized skills | Mostly backfill; moderate growth |
| Government | 1.0–1.5% | Budget cycles; low attrition | Mostly backfill of retirements |
Approximate typical ranges based on BLS JOLTS industry series. Source: BLS JOLTS. Browse industry pages for current figures.
Compiled by the " research team.
Growth Industries vs. High-Turnover Industries: The Key Distinction
The hire rate alone cannot tell you whether an industry is genuinely growing. You need to combine it with quits and layoffs to understand the net employment story:
| Industry Type | High Hire Rate? | High Quits Rate? | Net Employment | What It Means for Job Seekers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genuine growth (e.g., healthcare expansion) | Yes | Moderate | Rising | Good time to enter, openings real |
| High-turnover stable (e.g., restaurants) | Yes | High | Flat | Jobs available but wages may be flat |
| Cyclical recovery (e.g., construction boom) | Rising | Rising moderately | Rising fast | Excellent entry timing |
| Contraction with churn (e.g., tech 2022–23) | Falling | Falling | Shrinking | More competitive; fewer real openings |
Seasonal Patterns in Hiring
Hire rates have strong, predictable seasonal patterns that repeat every year regardless of the economic cycle. Understanding these rhythms helps job seekers time their search and helps analysts distinguish seasonal noise from genuine trend:
- Q4 (October–December): Retail hire rates spike sharply as holiday staffing ramps up. Accommodation hire rates also rise for seasonal resort staffing. These spikes do not signal structural growth, they reverse in January.
- September: Education hire rates spike with the academic year start. State and local government education employment surges. This is entirely seasonal.
- Spring (March–May): Construction hire rates rise sharply as weather permits outdoor work in northern states. Landscaping and agriculture fire simultaneously. This seasonal peak recurs annually.
- Summer (June–August): Accommodation and food services peak for tourism season. Some retail also sees a back-to-school uptick starting in July.
BLS seasonally adjusts the JOLTS series to remove these predictable patterns. PlainLabor's national trends use seasonally adjusted figures for cleaner trend reading.
What High Hire Rates Mean for Job Seekers
If you are looking for work in a specific industry, monitoring hire rates, combined with openings and quits, can help time your search and set wage expectations:
- Rising hire rate + rising openings rate: Best conditions for job seekers. Employers are both advertising more roles and successfully filling them, the market is expanding.
- High hire rate + high quits rate: Churn. Jobs are plentiful, but wages may not be rising, employers are refilling at existing rates. Consider whether the sector's fundamentals support wage growth or just turnover.
- Falling hire rate + stable openings: Employers are becoming more selective. Now is a harder time to enter an industry. Consider building more credential before applying.
- Hire rate below quits rate: Net employment is shrinking, more workers leaving than joining. This sector is contracting; entering now means competing with recent departures.
Browse PlainLabor's industry pages to see current hire rates, quits rates, and openings for each of the 22 JOLTS sectors.
Long-Run Industry Growth: Where Hiring Has Accelerated Most
Over the two decades of JOLTS data, certain industries have shown secular (long-run) increases in hire rates reflecting genuine structural growth, while others have been stable or declining:
- Healthcare and social assistance: Consistent secular growth driven by an aging population, Medicaid expansion, and rising demand for mental health services. Hire rates have trended upward relative to 2000–2005 baselines.
- Professional and business services: Long-run growth driven by outsourcing of business functions, technology adoption, and the expansion of consulting and staffing industries.
- Information (technology-adjacent): Volatile but with a clear upward trend through 2021. The 2022–2023 tech correction was a cyclical interruption of a longer secular growth story.
- Manufacturing: Hire rates have trended lower relative to earlier decades as automation reduced the total workforce needed, even as output grew. Reshoring may reverse this in select subsectors.
- Retail: Traditional retail hire rates have been compressed by e-commerce disruption even as logistics and warehouse hiring increased, a structural shift, not cyclical.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the hires rate measure?
The hires rate measures the number of new employees added to payroll during a month as a percentage of total employment in that sector. It captures all additions: new hires, rehires, and workers recalled from temporary layoff. A hire rate of 4.0% in an industry means that for every 100 workers employed, 4 new workers were added to payroll that month. High hire rates indicate rapidly expanding industries or industries with high turnover, context matters for interpretation.
Why do some industries have very high hire rates?
High hire rates can reflect two very different conditions. First, structural high turnover: industries like accommodation and food services always have high hire rates because many workers cycle in and out frequently, high hires and high quits coexist. Second, rapid growth: an industry that is actually expanding (adding net jobs) will show high hires exceeding separations. To tell the difference, look at the hires rate alongside the quits rate and layoffs rate, growth industries have high hires + low-to-moderate quits + low layoffs. High-turnover industries have high hires + high quits simultaneously.
Which industries historically have the lowest hire rates?
Government and utilities consistently have the lowest hire rates, typically 1.0–1.8% per month. These industries have stable, long-tenure workforces with low voluntary turnover and few openings. Financial activities and information also have relatively low hire rates due to specialized skills and selectivity. Low hire rates in these sectors reflect stability, not necessarily stagnation, they just do not need to add workers as frequently.
Does a high hire rate mean wages are rising in that industry?
Not necessarily directly. Wage growth is more closely tied to the openings-to-hires ratio (a tight market) than to the raw hire rate. An industry can have a high hire rate because of high turnover (accommodation, food services) without necessarily seeing wage acceleration, if workers keep cycling in at the same wages. Wage pressure comes when employers cannot fill roles even with high hiring activity, which is captured better by the openings rate than the hire rate alone.
How do hire rates change across economic cycles?
Hire rates are procyclical, they rise during economic expansions and fall during contractions. Construction hire rates are among the most cyclically sensitive, swinging dramatically with housing and infrastructure spending. Technology hiring compressed sharply in 2022–2023 after surging in 2020–2021. Healthcare hire rates are more stable because demographic demand (aging population) is less sensitive to economic cycles, though they rose sharply during post-pandemic healthcare worker shortages. Retail hire rates spike seasonally in Q4 every year regardless of the economic cycle.
What does a declining hire rate tell a job seeker?
A declining hire rate in a specific industry is a leading signal that job-seeking there will become more competitive. When employers slow hiring, fewer positions are filled each month, which means longer job search times, more competition per opening, and potentially less wage negotiating leverage. Job seekers should also watch the openings rate: if openings stay high but hires are falling, employers are being more selective rather than having less demand. If both openings and hires fall together, demand itself is contracting.
Explore the Data
- Browse 28 industries - current hire rates, openings, quits, and layoffs by sector
- Browse 51 states - hire rates and labor market summary by state
- National trends - how hire rates have shifted over time
- Job openings vs. hires - understanding the gap between demand and results
- Labor market indicators - the quits rate and layoffs in context
- The Great Resignation by the numbers - which industries saw the biggest hiring and quitting surge
Sources
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), bls.gov/jlt
- BLS, JOLTS Industry Series, seasonally adjusted monthly hires rate by supersector
- BLS, Current Employment Statistics (CES) for employment level context
This content is for informational and educational purposes only. Labor market data from BLS JOLTS is subject to revision. All figures are approximate based on published BLS historical data. This is not financial, investment, or employment advice. Always verify current figures at bls.gov.
