The short answer

US employers had 7.5 million job openings at the end of September 2026, up from 7.2 million in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. More people quit their jobs and fewer were laid off, which are both small good signs for job seekers.

The change is smaller than it sounds, though. The government calls the rise in openings "little changed," and hiring barely moved. So the job market in September was a little better than in August, but it was still slow. Here's what the report says, what the numbers mean, and what newer data from company career pages shows about October.

What is the JOLTS report?

JOLTS stands for Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) asks a large sample of employers how many jobs they have open, how many people they hired, and how many people left. It comes out about five weeks after the month it covers, so the report released November 3 describes September.

It counts four main things:

  • Job openings: jobs an employer is actively trying to fill on the last day of the month.
  • Hires: people added to the payroll during the month.
  • Quits: people who left on their own.
  • Layoffs and discharges: people let go by their employer.

The monthly jobs report, which comes out on a Friday, tells you how many jobs were added in total. JOLTS tells you what's going on underneath: how easy it is to get hired and how willing people are to leave.

The September 2026 numbers

TableJOLTS headline numbers (seasonally adjusted)
Measure Sept 2025 Aug 2026 Sept 2026
Job openings 7.17 million 7.19 million 7.52 million
Hires 5.24 million 5.27 million 5.40 million
Quits 2.99 million 3.04 million 3.37 million
Layoffs and discharges 1.82 million 1.77 million 1.64 million
Quit rate 1.9% 1.9% 2.1%

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, September 2026, released November 3, 2026. September figures are preliminary.

A few things stand out:

  • Openings went up by 333,000. That's the biggest number in the report, but BLS still calls it little changed because the survey's margin of error is wide. Openings are also about 350,000 higher than a year ago.
  • Quits jumped by 321,000. The quit rate rose to 2.1%, up from 1.9% in August and a year earlier. People tend to quit when they think they can find something better, so more quits can mean more confidence. Most of the rise came from restaurants and hotels, though, where quits went up by 197,000.
  • Layoffs fell to 1.6 million. The layoff rate was 1.0%, down from 1.1% in August and a year earlier. Health care and social assistance had 70,000 fewer layoffs than in August.
  • Hiring barely moved. Hires were 5.4 million, a rate of 3.4%. More openings only help job seekers when they turn into hires, and that didn't happen much in September.

August was also revised. Openings were raised by 111,000 and layoffs by 127,000, so August looked a bit better on openings and a bit worse on layoffs than first reported.

How many job openings are there for each job seeker?

The jobs report for September counted 7.1 million unemployed people. With 7.5 million openings, that's about one opening for every person looking, so each opening has roughly one job seeker competing for it before you count people who already have a job and want a new one.

The long wait is the harder part. BLS counted 1.9 million people who had been out of work for 27 weeks or more. That's 27.1% of everyone unemployed, so more than 1 in 4 job seekers has been looking for over six months.

What it means for you: a long search is common right now and doesn't mean you're doing something wrong. It does mean it's worth being picky about where you spend your time, which the last section of this article is about.

Which industries added and lost openings

TableJob openings by industry, in thousands
Industry Sept 2025 Aug 2026 Sept 2026
Health care and social assistance 1,417 1,514 1,479
Professional and business services 1,267 1,204 1,310
Government 764 782 880
Leisure and hospitality 1,152 797 779
Retail trade 588 699 698
Manufacturing 389 530 584
Construction 206 262 298
Finance and insurance 257 331 289
Information 119 91 116

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS Table 1, released November 3, 2026. September figures are preliminary.

  • Professional and business services added 106,000 openings. This group covers office jobs like consulting, accounting, legal work and tech services, so it matters for many people reading this.
  • Government added 98,000, almost all of it in state and local government outside schools (up 104,000).
  • Manufacturing and construction have grown all year. Manufacturing openings are up about 50% from a year ago, and construction openings are up about 45%.
  • Health care is still the biggest source of openings even after a small drop in September.
  • Leisure and hospitality is far below last year, with about a third fewer openings than in September 2025.
  • Information, which includes software publishers and media, is still very small at 116,000 openings, about the same as a year ago.

What company career pages show for October

JOLTS is already a month old when it comes out. Hiring Tempo counts the open jobs on hundreds of company career pages every day, mostly tech and other fast-growing companies, so it can show what happened after September at those employers.

At the 427 companies we tracked on both October 3 and November 3, open jobs went from 36,431 to 35,783, about 2% lower. Nearly all of that drop came from four companies whose lists fell from 1,277 jobs to 347. A shrinking list can come from a change to a company's careers site rather than real cuts, so we don't read it as proof of layoffs.

Leaving those four out, here's what the other 423 companies looked like:

TableOpen jobs at the same 423 companies, October 3 to November 3, 2026
Measure Oct 3 Nov 3 Change
All open jobs 35,154 35,436 +0.8%
Engineering 10,275 10,312 +0.4%
Sales and go-to-market 5,141 5,234 +1.8%
Marketing 1,550 1,599 +3.2%
Product 1,196 1,239 +3.6%
Design 1,695 1,629 -3.9%
Jobs posted in the last 30 days 11,864 10,751 -9.4%

Source: Hiring Tempo, open jobs on company career pages, October 3 and November 3, 2026.

That's the same slow, steady picture as JOLTS. Total openings barely moved, 190 companies grew and 174 shrank. One number is softer: about 9% fewer jobs were posted in October than in the 30 days before. Fewer new postings can mean companies are filling the jobs they already have instead of opening new ones, so it's worth watching. For the companies that added the most jobs, see Companies Hiring Right Now: November 2026.

  • Openings are steady, but hiring is slow. Openings rose in September while hires barely moved, so a posted job doesn't always turn into a quick offer. Plan for a search that takes a while and keep applying while you wait to hear back.
  • Apply early. With about one opening per job seeker, the first good applications get read first. New jobs are where your odds are best.
  • Look where openings are growing. Business services, manufacturing, construction and government all added openings. Sales jobs at software companies also kept growing in our October data, so the sales and go-to-market job list is a good place to look if your skills fit.
  • Don't count on the national number alone. A rise in openings at hospitals or state agencies doesn't help much if you're looking for a design job. Look at your own field and your own city.

When the next reports come out

  • October jobs report: Friday, November 6, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
  • October JOLTS report: Tuesday, December 1, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

We'll update this page when the next JOLTS report is out.

Sources