Notes on current labor statistics

Monthly Labor Review, Nov, 2004

OMB defines metropolitan areas in terms of entire counties, except in the six New England States where they are defined in terms of cities and towns. New England data in this table, however, are based on a county concept defined by OMB as New England County Metropolitan Areas (NECMA) because county-level data are the most detailed available from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. The NECMA is a county-based alternative to the city- and town-based metropolitan areas in New England. The NECMA for a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) include: (1) the county containing the first-named city in that MSA title (this county may include the first-named cities of other MSA, and (2) each additional county having at least half its population in the MSA in which first-named cities are in the county identified in step 1. The NECMA is officially defined areas that are meant to be used by statistical programs that cannot use the regular metropolitan area definitions in New England.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION on the covered employment and wage data, contact the Division of Administrative Statistics and Labor Turnover at (202) 691-6567.

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey

Description of the series

Data for the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) are collected and compiled from a sample of 16,000 business establishments. Each month, data are collected for total employment, job openings, hires, quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations. The JOLTS program covers all private nonfarm establishments such as factories, offices, and stores, as well as Federal, State, and local government entities in the 50 States and the District of Columbia. The JOLTS sample design is a random sample drawn from a universe of more than eight million establishments compiled as part of the operations of the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, or QCEW, program. This program includes all employers subject to State unemployment insurance (UI) laws and Federal agencies subject to Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE).

The sampling frame is stratified by ownership, region, industry sector, and size class. Large firms fall into the sample with virtual certainty. JOLTS total employment estimates are controlled to the employment estimates of the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey. A ratio of CES to JOLTS employment is used to adjust the levels for all other JOLTS data elements. Rates then are computed from the adjusted levels.

The monthly JOLTS data series begin with December 2000. Not seasonally adjusted data on job openings, hires, total separations, quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations levels and rates are available for the total nonfarm sector, 16 private industry divisions and 2 government divisions based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), and four geographic regions. Seasonally adjusted data on job openings, hires, total separations, and quits levels and rates are available for the total nonfarm sector, selected industry sectors, and four geographic regions.