The JOLTS hires rate answers a specific question: how many payroll additions did establishments report during a month, relative to their employment? It is a measure of hiring activity, not the share of vacancies filled or the change in the number of jobs. That distinction matters because hires count a flow across the whole month, while openings are a snapshot on its final business day. In the August 2026 report, the national hires rate was 3.3 percent, alongside 5.2 million hires Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A monthly flow divided by employment
The Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates the hires rate by dividing the number of hires during the reference month by employment and multiplying by 100. JOLTS covers private nonfarm establishments and civilian federal, state and local government entities in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Its estimates come from a survey of establishments, rather than a count of individual job seekers Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Hires” includes additions to an establishment’s payroll during the month: new and rehired employees, full-time and part-time workers, and permanent, short-term and seasonal employees. It can also include someone hired and then separated again within that month. Transfers within the same reporting location are excluded; a transfer from another location is counted. Workers supplied by temporary-help agencies and outside contractors are counted by their employer of record, not the establishment where they work Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A hypothetical payroll calculation
Consider a hypothetical establishment with 100 employees in its employment count and five payroll additions over the month. Its hires rate would be 5 divided by 100, then multiplied by 100: 5 percent. That simple calculation illustrates the denominator, but real survey estimates aggregate information across establishments and are subject to the survey’s estimation process. It is not a prediction that five of every 100 workers will leave or be replaced.
The measure counts additions, not net job growth. If the same hypothetical business also had four separations during the month, it would still have five hires under the measure. The difference between hires and separations could help describe payroll change, but the hires rate itself reports only additions relative to employment. A business can hire people while its employment stays level or falls if separations are also occurring.
Openings are a different kind of count
Job openings count positions vacant on the last business day of the reference month. To qualify, a position must exist with work available, be capable of starting within 30 days, and be subject to active recruiting from outside the establishment. A position already filled by someone who has not reported for work is not an opening under this definition Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That timing difference is essential: hires accumulate throughout the month, while openings are a month-end snapshot. A position may be open early in the month and filled before the final business day; the hire can count even though that vacancy is absent from the closing snapshot. Conversely, a position can remain open at month’s end without producing a hire during that month. So the hires rate cannot be read as the share of openings filled.
What the August figure can tell readers
For August 2026, JOLTS reported a 3.3 percent hires rate and 5.2 million hires, figures described as little changed over the month and year. The same report listed 7.1 million openings, with an openings rate of 4.3 percent Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those numbers measure different things: the hires rate scales monthly payroll additions to employment, while the openings count records qualifying vacancies at month’s end.
JOLTS is also distinct from the household survey used to estimate unemployment. The Current Population Survey classifies people based on their work and job-search activity during a reference week; its unemployment rate is the unemployed share of the labor force Bureau of Labor Statistics. That person-based measure and JOLTS’ establishment-based turnover estimates can illuminate different dimensions of the labor market. Neither one, by itself, tells a reader how easy it is for a particular person to find a job.
Sources & further reading
- August 2026 job openings and labor turnover ↗Bureau of Labor Statistics
- How the government measures unemployment ↗Bureau of Labor Statistics
