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. First published in December 2000, JOLTS has become one of the most closely watched indicators of labor market health.

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").

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.

This dashboard pulls data directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics public API. The data is refreshed automatically via scheduled background jobs using Convex, ensuring you always see the most current figures.

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).

The dashboard provides three primary views:

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

Built with modern web technologies to deliver real-time data updates without manual page refreshes:

Data is fetched via scheduled Convex cron jobs and stored in a reactive database, enabling instant UI updates when new BLS releases become available.