About This Dashboard
An interactive visualization of U.S. labor market dynamics through the lens of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, unemployment rate, and labor force participation rate.
View source on GitHubWhat is JOLTS?
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) is a monthly survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that measures job vacancies, hires, and separations across the U.S. economy. Its monthly series begin in December 2000.
The survey collects data from approximately 21,000 nonfarm business and government establishments, providing insights into labor demand that complement the more widely known Employment Situation report (commonly known as the "jobs report").
Economic Significance
Job openings serve as a leading indicator of labor demand. When openings rise, it typically signals employer confidence and economic expansion. Conversely, declining openings often precede broader economic slowdowns and rising unemployment.
The Federal Reserve closely monitors JOLTS data when making monetary policy decisions. The ratio of job openings to unemployed workers (the "vacancy-to-unemployment ratio") is particularly significant—a high ratio suggests a tight labor market with employers competing for workers, while a low ratio indicates labor market slack.
HIGH OPENINGS
- ↑Strong labor demand
- ↑Wage pressure (inflation risk)
- ↑Worker bargaining power
LOW OPENINGS
- ↓Weak labor demand
- ↓Potential recession signal
- ↓Higher unemployment risk
Data Source & Methodology
This dashboard pulls data directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics public API. The data is refreshed automatically via scheduled background jobs using Convex, with daily checks for new releases and revisions. The dashboard distinguishes observation periods from successful fetch times.
DATA SERIES USED
All job openings values are seasonally adjusted and expressed in thousands. The dashboard converts these to millions for readability (e.g., 7,500 thousand = 7.50M).
Using This Dashboard
The dashboard provides three primary views:
JOB OPENINGS VIEW
Displays total nonfarm job openings over time with the ability to overlay specific sectors for comparison. Use the sector filters at the bottom to toggle different industries on/off.
UNEMPLOYMENT VIEW
Shows the national unemployment rate trend, helping visualize the inverse relationship between labor demand and unemployment.
PARTICIPATION VIEW
Displays the labor force participation rate—the percentage of the working-age population that is either employed or actively seeking work. This metric helps contextualize unemployment figures by showing how many people are in the workforce.
The rotating insights at the top right provide automatically generated analysis of notable patterns in the data, including peak comparisons, sector-specific changes, and pre-pandemic benchmarks.
CHART CONTROLS
TIME RANGE CONTROLS
Filter data by time period: 1Y, 3Y, 5Y, 10Y, or ALL. The selected range is shared across views.
TRENDLINE TOGGLE
Enable a linear regression trendline to visualize the overall direction of the data. The change indicator compares the first and last observations in the selected period, using percent for openings and percentage points for rates.
CHATGPT RELEASE DATE
A vertical reference line marks November 2022—when ChatGPT launched. The marker is historical context; it does not establish a causal relationship with changes in openings. Toggle this marker on/off via the chart controls.
AI Mentions in Federal Announcements
The USAJOBS feature was originally contributed by @grandSpecial. It counts AI keyword mentions in currently open federal announcements posted within a 14-day lookback.
Announcements are collected daily, deduplicated by ID, and grouped by their federal occupational series. These occupations are separate from BLS industries. One announcement may cover multiple occupations or vacancies; group counts should not be added together.
Percentages appear only after a complete collection, and only for groups with at least 20 announcements. If a request fails, the previous complete collection remains visible with its date. The collection is bounded to 20 pages of 500 results; reaching that limit before completion withholds a new percentage.
Matches are mentions, including optional skills and references that do not require AI experience. The matcher can miss relevant language or count unrelated references. Its accuracy has not been established on a representative labeled sample. Federal hiring is not representative of the entire labor market.
This dashboard does not estimate jobs lost to AI or individual replacement risk. Falling openings can reflect filled vacancies, withdrawn listings, or changing demand. The charts alone cannot attribute a change to AI.
Technical Implementation
The dashboard uses:
Framework
Backend & Realtime
Visualization
Data Source
Data is fetched via scheduled Convex cron jobs and stored in a reactive database, updating the dashboard after successful imports.
CONTRIBUTORS
- @grandSpecial — USAJOBS AI skill mentions feature
- @igorzmitrovich — suggested the ChatGPT release date marker
- @DaveShapi — requested the labor force participation rate view
DISCLAIMER
This dashboard is provided for educational and informational purposes only. While data is sourced directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this is not an official BLS product. The visualizations and analysis presented here should not be used as the sole basis for investment, policy, or business decisions. Always refer to official BLS releases for authoritative data.
I'm Brian Stever, a student studying Applied AI at the University of Arizona. I built this as a personal project to explore labor market data—it's not affiliated with or endorsed by my school. The code is open source and available on GitHub.