Ten Years Ago, Plenty of Workers Were Available

There are certain economic data series that receive the bulk of the attention. On a daily basis, it’s stock prices that seem to capture the attention of the media, active investors, and retirees, among others. On a monthly basis, it’s the jobs report, with people clamoring to know how many jobs were added during the prior month and whether or not the unemployment rate has shifted. On a quarterly basis, it’s the GDP report, which serves as the primary indicator regarding the economy’s performance in terms of growth.

But there are hundreds of indicators out there, and many of them are also rather valuable. For contractors, perhaps no indicator is as revealing today as the number of available, unfilled jobs, which is reported as part of the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). The number is reported each month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.