BLS JOLTS | three-month state averages
Labor Market Rankings
Compare state job-openings, quits, hiring and layoff rates as descriptive measures. A high rate is not a verdict on a state’s job market.
What the openings-rate table shows
Georgia leads the current job-openings-rate ranking at 5.6%, followed by Oklahoma at 5.5%. The fifth displayed state sits at 5.0%, so the spread across this displayed group is 0.6 percentage points.
- 5.6%
- Georgia | #1
- 5.5%
- Oklahoma | #2
- 5.0%
- top-five cutoff
- 0.6pp
- #1-to-cutoff spread
These are rates averaged over three months with the published minimum-volume screen. They compare openings relative to the relevant employment base; they do not rank job quality or worker outcomes.
Rate distribution
The current openings-rate leaders, in scale
The cards below cover six different rate measures. This board keeps one comparable measure together: the five highest published three-month job-openings rates, with each bar scaled to the leader rather than to an implied job-market score.
Bars retain the published minimum-volume screen. Rates describe employer survey flows relative to the relevant employment base; they are not a measure of wages, worker outcomes, or job quality.
JOLTS openings-hires residual | Jun 2026
Where openings still outrun hires
Each bar is openings minus hires for that national supersector in Jun 2026 (BLS thousands). The residual is a stock-minus-flow arithmetic check, not unfilled vacancies, not hiring advice, and not a quality score. Private education and health services currently leads this residual at 680K.
Openings are an end-of-month stock; hires are a during-month flow. Subtracting them is a descriptive residual on the published series, not a count of people still looking for work.
Highest Job Openings Rate
States ranked by 3-month average openings rate (min 20K average openings). Descriptive rate, not a "hot market" verdict.
- 1 Georgia 5.6%
- 2 Oklahoma 5.5%
- 3 West Virginia 5.5%
- 4 Mississippi 5.1%
- 5 Louisiana 5.0%
Most Reported Job Openings by Industry
National supersectors ranked by 3-month average reported openings volume (JOLTS thousands). Volume count, not job quality.
Lowest Job Openings Rate
States ranked by lowest 3-month average openings rate (min 20K average openings). Descriptive rate, not a "tight market" verdict.
- 1 Washington 3.1%
- 2 Hawaii 3.3%
- 3 Nevada 3.3%
- 4 California 3.6%
- 5 Iowa 3.6%
Highest Quits Rate
States ranked by 3-month average voluntary quits rate (min 20K average quits).
- 1 Indiana 2.9%
- 2 Louisiana 2.6%
- 3 Michigan 2.6%
- 4 Mississippi 2.4%
- 5 Idaho 2.3%
Lowest Quits Rate
States ranked by lowest 3-month average voluntary quits rate (min 20K average quits).
- 1 Massachusetts 1.3%
- 2 New Jersey 1.4%
- 3 California 1.6%
- 4 Connecticut 1.6%
- 5 New York 1.6%
Highest Hires Rate
States ranked by 3-month average hires rate (min 20K average hires).
- 1 Alaska 6.6%
- 2 Montana 4.6%
- 3 Idaho 4.1%
- 4 South Carolina 4.0%
- 5 Illinois 3.9%
Highest Layoff Rate
States ranked by 3-month average layoff-and-discharge rate (min 20K average layoffs). Single-month spikes are averaged out.
- 1 Idaho 5.5%
- 2 Indiana 1.6%
- 3 New York 1.5%
- 4 Nevada 1.3%
- 5 New Jersey 1.3%
How PlainLabor Rankings Are Compiled
Our rankings are computed directly from the upstream dataset, not editorially curated and not influenced by advertisers. Each ranking surfaces a clear, reproducible metric (for example, count of records per jurisdiction, share of records within a category, or rate per capita), and the underlying numbers are visible on the associated record pages so you can verify them. We recompute rankings whenever the upstream data refreshes, and we publish the refresh cadence on the methodology page.
What Rankings Mean (and What They Do Not)
A ranking is a useful lens, it tells you where to start looking, but it is not a judgment about quality, safety, or reputation. Being at the top of a count-based ranking typically reflects scale: more records in a jurisdiction, more entities in a category. It does not mean "better" or "worse." Whenever a ranking could be misread as a quality claim, we include an explanatory note on the page. When a ranking is rate-based (per capita, per thousand, share), we describe the denominator so you can sanity-check whether the normalization fits your question.
Why We Publish These Rankings
Rankings make large public datasets navigable. Most visitors arrive with a question ("Which jurisdiction has the most records?" or "Where is this category concentrated?") and benefit from seeing a ranked list with direct links to the full records. Publishing ranked views of public data is a long-established practice in civic journalism; we are careful to surface the raw numbers, link to the official source, and avoid editorial spin. If a ranking ever implies a value judgment not supported by the data, please email us at the address on the contact page and we will review the wording.
Methodology, Sources, and Corrections
Every ranking is derived from the source dataset linked on the methodology page. We do not blend proprietary signals; we do not substitute editor opinion for data. If you believe a ranking is miscomputed or that a record is misclassified, please contact us with the specific record ID and the expected correction, and we will investigate within the next refresh cycle. Corrections that affect the published ranking are rolled forward immediately; minor formatting fixes go out with the next scheduled refresh.
Download the BLS JOLTS state snapshot cited on this page: jolts-labor-market-statistics.csv (CC0).
Every figure on PlainLabor is rendered from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS); no number is typed in by an editor. Board cards preview the same JOLTS rate rankings as each board page; rates describe employer survey flows, not job quality. See our editorial standards and corrections policy, methodology, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-17. JOLTS figures are employer-survey openings and turnover rates for a published reference month - not job-quality rankings, hiring recommendations, or real-time vacancy postings.