Job openings count unfilled positions an employer is actively recruiting for. Hires count people who actually started. Quits count voluntary departures. Layoffs and discharges count involuntary ones. In June 2026: openings about 7.36 million, hires 5.35 million, quits 3.23 million, layoffs 1.77 million. Employers completed about 0.73 hires per opening, against 0.82 in 2019 — the gap between advertising and hiring has widened.
Four series, four different questions
Openings count positions that exist, are unfilled, could start within thirty days and are being actively recruited for. A posting alone does not qualify, which is why the official count is far below the number of listings you can see.
Hires count people who actually started. This is the number that describes whether anybody is being taken on.
Quits count voluntary departures — the best available proxy for how confident workers feel, because people leave when they think they can get something else.
Layoffs and discharges count involuntary separations, and this series moves fastest when conditions genuinely deteriorate.
Where they stand
June 2026: openings about 7.36 million, hires 5.35 million, quits 3.23 million, layoffs 1.77 million. Against their 2019 averages, openings are slightly up and every other series is down.
Hires are the one to notice — down roughly 10 per cent while openings rose. That is the high-openings-low-hires pattern in plain numbers, and it is invisible if you read either series alone.
The combinations that mean something
High openings, low hires. Employers advertising without closing. Slow processes, unrealistic requirements, roles kept live speculatively, or approval that keeps getting deferred. This is the current condition.
Falling quits with flat layoffs. A frozen market. Nobody is being pushed out and nobody dares move, and it is the most common shape of a bad market for job seekers — bad without ever producing a dramatic headline.
Rising layoffs. The genuinely serious signal, and the one that shows up last in commentary because it takes a quarter of data before anybody is confident enough to write it.
What each one is good for personally
If you are deciding whether to start looking, watch quits in your industry — it tells you whether people like you are successfully moving.
If you are already looking and wondering whether it is you or the market, watch the hires-to-openings ratio. When employers are completing fewer hires per advertised role, long silent processes are the market rather than your resume.
If you are deciding whether to stay somewhere unpleasant, watch layoffs. Below-average layoffs mean the cost of waiting is lower than it feels.
Why one number gets quoted for another
“Millions of jobs available” is an openings statement. It says nothing about whether employers are completing hires, and in a month when hires are falling it is technically true and substantively misleading.
The four are published together, monthly, by industry, and they only mean anything against each other. Reading one alone is how confident wrong conclusions get made from correct data.
What none of them measure
Somebody moving between employers within the same occupation does not create an opening in this measure — they vacate one and fill another. So the churn you observe around you is larger than these figures suggest, sometimes much larger.
They also say nothing about quality. A hire is a hire whether it is a career move or a reluctant step down, and a substantial share of hiring in a frozen market is the second kind.
Reading them by industry rather than nationally
All four are published by industry, and the national figure is an average of sectors that frequently move in opposite directions. Healthcare hiring and information-sector hiring can be doing completely different things while the total sits flat.
Compare your industry against its own history rather than against other industries, because structural levels differ enormously for reasons that have nothing to do with current conditions. Accommodation and food service run permanently high quits; government runs permanently low. Neither tells you anything until you look at the trend.
The revision problem
These series are revised, and a dramatic month sometimes becomes an ordinary one when the next release lands. Anything built on a single month’s movement is built on sand.
Use three-month or twelve-month comparisons for anything you plan to act on. The signal that matters for a job search is a direction sustained over a quarter, not a jump that made the news and got quietly corrected.
Common questions
What counts as a job opening?
A position that exists, is unfilled, could start within thirty days and is being actively recruited for. A posting alone is not enough.
Why watch hires separately?
Because openings can be high while hires are low, which means employers are advertising and not closing.
What does the quits rate tell me?
How confident workers feel. People leave voluntarily when they believe they can get something else.
Which series moves first in a downturn?
Layoffs and discharges move fastest, and are usually the last thing commentary catches up with.
What does a frozen market look like?
Falling quits with flat layoffs — nobody pushed out, nobody daring to move. It is the most common shape of a bad market for job seekers.
What is the difference between openings and hires?
Openings are unfilled positions being recruited for; hires are people who actually started. In June 2026 that was 7.36 million against 5.35 million.
Which series should I watch?
Quits in your industry if deciding whether to look, the hires-to-openings ratio if you are already looking, and layoffs if deciding whether to stay put.
What do these series not capture?
Moving between employers in the same occupation, which creates no opening in this measure — so real churn is larger than the figures suggest.
Should I use national or industry figures?
Industry, compared against its own history. Structural levels differ hugely — food service runs permanently high quits and government permanently low.