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Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
Bureau of Labor Statistics > Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey > About > Questions & Answers

JOLTS Frequently Asked Questions

  1. How are job openings defined in JOLTS?▸
    • Job openings are all positions that are open on the last business day of the reference month. A job is open only if it meets all three of these conditions:
      • A specific position exists and there is work available for that position. The position can be full-time or part-time, and it can be permanent, short-term, or seasonal.
      • The job could start within 30 days, whether or not the employer can find a suitable candidate during that time.
      • The employer is actively recruiting workers from outside the establishment to fill the position. Active recruiting means that the establishment is taking steps to fill a position. It may include advertising in newspapers, on television, or on the radio; posting internet notices, posting "help wanted" signs, networking, or making word-of-mouth announcements; accepting applications; interviewing candidates; contacting employment agencies; or soliciting employees at job fairs, state or local employment offices, or similar sources.
  2. How are hires defined in JOLTS?▸
    • Hires include all additions to the payroll during the entire reference month, including:
      • New and rehired employees
      • Full-time and part-time employees
      • Permanent, short-term, and seasonal employees
      • Employees who were recalled to a job at the location following a layoff (formal suspension from pay status) lasting more than 7 days
      • On-call or intermittent employees who returned to work after having been formally separated
      • Workers who were hired and separated during the month
      • Transfers from other locations
    • Excluded are transfers or promotions within the reporting location; employees returning from strike; employees supplied by temporary help agencies or employee leasing companies; outside contractors; or consultants.
  3. How are separations defined in JOLTS?▸
    • Separations include all separations from an establishment’s payroll during the reference month. There are three types of separations—quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations. Each type of separation is reported separately. The three types of separations are then summed to obtain total separations.
    • Excluded from separations measures are transfers within the same location; employees on strike; and employees supplied by temporary help agencies or employee leasing companies; outside contractors; or consultants.
  4. How are quits defined in JOLTS?▸
    • Quits are separations of employees who left voluntarily at any point during the reference month. Quits exclude retirements or transfers to other locations.
  5. How are layoffs and discharges defined in JOLTS?▸
    • Layoffs and discharges are involuntary separations initiated by the employer, including:
      • Layoffs with no intent to rehire
      • Layoffs (formal suspension from pay status) lasting or expected to last more than 7 days
      • Discharges resulting from mergers, downsizing, or closings
      • Firings or other discharges for cause
      • Terminations of permanent or short-term employees
      • Terminations of seasonal employees (whether or not they are expected to return the next season)
  6. How are other separations defined in JOLTS?▸
    • Other separations include separations due to retirement, death, disability, and transfers to other locations of the same firm.
    • Employees on medical or maternity leave are not counted as other separations.
  7. Are job openings, hires, and separations stock measures or flow measures?▸
    • Stock measures are a snapshot of a particular point in time. Job openings are stock measures because they estimate the number of job openings on the last business day of the month.
    • Flow measures are measured over a period of time. Hires and separations are flow measures because they estimate the number of hires and separations during an entire month. Unlike a stock measure, the sum of all twelve months of a flow estimate yields an annual total. The components of separations—quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations—are also flow measures.
  8. What is the reference period for JOLTS?▸
    • Job openings have a different reference period than that for hires and separations. The reference period for job openings is the last business day of the month, while the reference period for hires and separations is the entire month.
  9. Why does the JOLTS survey have revisions?▸
    • JOLTS revises published estimates to improve its data series by incorporating additional information that was not available at the time of the initial publication of the estimates. The first time a monthly estimate is published, it is considered preliminary. The following month, that estimate is revised to incorporate additional sample receipts from respondents in the survey and is considered final. The recalculation of seasonal factors also contributes to the monthly revisions.
    • Additionally, JOLTS estimates are revised annually to reflect annual updates to the Current Employment Statistics (CES) employment estimates. At the time of the annual updates, the prior 5 years of seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted JOLTS data are subject to revision.
  10. How big is the JOLTS sample?▸
    • JOLTS samples approximately 21,000 units, primarily using the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) as its sample frame. The QCEW provides a list of establishments that cover over 95 percent of nonfarm payroll jobs in the United States. For more information about the JOLTS sample, see the Data Sources section of the JOLTS Handbook of Methods.
  11. How are JOLTS data collected?▸
    • Each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects data on job openings, hires, and separations from a sample of establishments. JOLTS has a comprehensive program of new sample unit solicitation in two Regional Data Collection Centers (DCCs). The DCCs perform initial enrollment of each establishment via telephone, collect the data for several months via Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI), and, where possible, transfer respondents to web reporting. In addition, the DCCs conduct an ongoing program of refusal conversion.
    • Offering survey respondents a choice of reporting methods helps sustain response rates to this voluntary survey.
    • More information about JOLTS data collection is available in the Data Sources section of the JOLTS Handbook of Methods.
  12. What information is collected from each respondent to the JOLTS survey?▸
    • For all collection methods, JOLTS uses a standard set of questions listed and explained in the JOLTS data collection forms. There are three forms: one for temporary help agencies and professional employer organizations, one for the education industry, and one for all other businesses. Each form asks establishments to report:
      • Number of full- or part-time employees who worked or received for pay for the pay period that includes the 12th of the month
      • Number of job openings on the last business day of the month
      • Number of hires for the entire month
      • Number of quits for the entire month
      • Number of layoffs and discharges for the entire month
      • Number of other separations for the entire month
    • Most JOLTS data are provided though a web collection tool, but respondents are supplied with JOLTS collection forms for reference.
  13. Does JOLTS break out data by geography?▸
  14. Does JOLTS break out data by occupation?▸
  15. Is hires minus separations equal to the over-the-month employment change as measured by the Current Employment Statistics (CES)?▸
    • Over-the-month employment change is measured by the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey—often referred to as the establishment survey—and is reported in the Employment Situation news release. If separations are subtracted from hires, the difference represents an implied employment change. The JOLTS implied employment change and the CES over-the-month employment change are conceptually similar and track well over time. However, the series can diverge from each other in the short term because the two surveys differ in methodology. For example, they have definitional differences, different reference periods, and distinct estimation procedures.
  16. How can I get JOLTS microdata or data about a certain company?▸
    • The mission of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is to collect, process, analyze, and disseminate essential statistical data to the American public, the U.S. Congress, other federal agencies, state and local governments, business, and labor. In order to maintain credibility and trust with our survey respondents, confidentiality protections for our data are essential. Protecting the confidentiality of data is central to accomplishing the BLS mission.
    • When collecting data, the BLS makes a pledge of confidentiality to its respondents. This pledge varies depending on the context of each survey, but the standard BLS confidentiality pledge promises that data collected are used for statistical purposes only. The BLS confidentiality page lists information about the policy and laws that protect reporters to BLS surveys.
    • Researchers can get access to BLS microdata under certain circumstances. Information about qualifying for the program and the application process through which access may be granted can be found on the BLS Restricted Data Access page.

Last Modified Date: December 4, 2024