US JOLTS Response Rates Near Record Lows
The share of businesses participating in the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey has fallen sharply, leaving official vacancy data based on a historically small response pool.
The participation rate in the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey has deteriorated. Only about one in four businesses approached now agree to take part in JOLTS, near the lowest level since 2022. Before the 2020 pandemic, the initiation rate typically ranged between 50% and 70%.
Response rates for the initial estimate are also weak. The first closing response rate is roughly 30%, near the lowest on record and down by half over the past decade. The second closing response rate is about 35%, also near a record low.
As a result, the BLS is publishing job openings data based on a historically small fraction of responses and revising figures only as additional responses arrive. This points to growing reliability concerns for official US labor market statistics.
Source: The Kobeissi Letter