Hiring in 2026: employers hire at the rate of 2012 and 2024

How the 2026 hiring rate compares with earlier years

BLS measures hiring in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), a monthly sample of about 21,000 businesses and government establishments. The hires rate is the month's hires divided by employment. Job openings are positions open on the last business day of the month. Each could start within 30 days, and the employer is actively recruiting for it from outside the establishment.[2][1]

In August 2026, employers made 5.2 million hires, a rate of 3.3%. Before 2024, the last August with a hires rate that low was in 2012. From January to August 2026 the monthly rate stayed between 3.1% and 3.5%.[1][3][4][6]

From August 2025 to August 2026, the hires rate edged up from 3.2% to 3.3%. Openings rose from 6.9 million to 7.1 million, and unemployed people per opening fell from 1.07 to 0.99.[3][4][6]

Fewer people are leaving their jobs. The quits rate is the month's quits divided by employment. It was 1.9% in August 2026, against 2.3% in August 2019 and 2.8% in August 2022. BLS reads the quits rate as a measure of workers' willingness or ability to leave jobs.[1][5]

How many unemployed people there are for each job opening

The ratio in the table divides the number of unemployed people by the number of job openings in the same month. Unemployment comes from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of about 60,000 households, for the week that includes the 12th. Openings are counted for the last business day of the month. In August 2026 that gave 7,031,000 unemployed people against 7,079,000 openings, or 0.99 per opening.[13][2][6][4]

In August 2022 the ratio was 0.59, when employers had far more openings than unemployed people. The ratio leaves out employed people who also apply for jobs. A ratio near 1 does not mean a job for everyone: openings and job seekers differ by place, field and skill.[6][4]

How long job searches take in 2026

The median duration is the middle value. In September 2026, half of unemployed people had been unemployed for more than 11.5 weeks, and half for less. The long-term unemployed, those jobless for 27 weeks or more, numbered 1.9 million. They were 27.1% of all unemployed people.[11][12]

Duration counts how long people have been unemployed so far, not how long a completed search took. For people on temporary layoff, it counts weeks on layoff.[10]

These figures come from samples and are seasonally adjusted, so read small month-to-month changes with care. August 2026 JOLTS figures are preliminary, and BLS revises them the next month. The household survey was not collected for October 2025, during the 2025 lapse in federal funding.[13][1][14]

What slow hiring means for your job search

For a shorter-term option, see what payroll data says about seasonal jobs. For separations, compare government layoff data for 2026.

BLS released the August 2026 JOLTS data on September 29, 2026, and the September 2026 jobs report on October 2, 2026. It publishes September 2026 JOLTS data on November 3, 2026, and the October 2026 jobs report on November 6, 2026.[1][11][15]