Construction employers had 298,000 job openings on the last business day of September 2026, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on November 3. The figure is seasonally adjusted and preliminary. It is 36,000 above a revised August, a gain of 13.7%, and 92,000 above September 2025, a gain of 44.7%. The construction job openings rate, which is openings as a share of employment plus openings, rose to 3.4% from 3.0%. September sits above the 12-month average of about 259,000 and ties June for third-highest of the last 25 months, behind July 2025 at 305,000 and July 2026 at 299,000.
Openings returned to their June and July level
Construction job openings, thousands, seasonally adjusted, last business day of the month
| Month | Openings (000s) | MoM | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 206 | -3.3% | -16.3% |
| Oct 2025 | 196 | -4.8% | -18.7% |
| Nov 2025 | 292 | 49.0% | 25.3% |
| Dec 2025 | 245 | -16.1% | 81.5% |
| Jan 2026 | 230 | -6.1% | -0.9% |
| Feb 2026 | 201 | -12.6% | -21.2% |
| Mar 2026 | 234 | 16.4% | -15.8% |
| Apr 2026 | 266 | 13.7% | 28.5% |
| May 2026 | 291 | 9.4% | 31.1% |
| Jun 2026 | 298 | 2.4% | 33.0% |
| Jul 2026 | 299 | 0.3% | -2.0% |
| Aug 2026 | 262 | -12.4% | 23.0% |
| Sep 2026 | 298 | 13.7% | 44.7% |
What moved
Quits rose faster than any other construction flow in the release. Construction workers who left their jobs voluntarily numbered 198,000 in September, up 46,000 from August and 71,000 from September 2025. The quits rate rose to 2.4% from 1.8%, where it had held for June, July and August. On the FRED series, 198,000 is the highest monthly count in the 25 months shown in the chart, and the previous high in that window was 173,000 in February 2025.
Hires rose too, to 356,000 from 307,000, and the hires rate went to 4.3% from 3.7%. Layoffs and discharges rose to 138,000 from 113,000. That is still well below the 194,000 of September 2025.
| Measure | Sep 2025 (000s) | Aug 2026 (000s) | Sep 2026 (000s) | Sep 2026 rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Job openings | 206 | 262 | 298 | 3.4% |
| Hires | 337 | 307 | 356 | 4.3% |
| Quits | 127 | 152 | 198 | 2.4% |
| Layoffs and discharges | 194 | 113 | 138 | 1.6% |
Put the four lines together and September looks like a month with more movement between employers. More workers quit, more were hired, and more positions were open at month’s end. That fits workers leaving for other construction jobs, and it also fits workers leaving the industry. JOLTS counts a quit as a separation from the payroll of the establishment the worker left, so the release does not show where those workers went.
For the economy as a whole, openings were little changed at 7.5 million and quits rose to 3.4 million. The release names the industries where openings, hires, quits or layoffs changed over the month, and construction is not among them. BLS conducts its analyses at a 90% confidence level, and the release does not treat construction’s September gains as significant at that level.
How to use this number
- Compare your own quit rate to the industry’s. BLS divides quits during the month by employment. As an example, a contractor with 150 field and office employees and 4 voluntary departures in September has a quit rate of 4 / 150, or 2.7%, against 2.4% for construction. Run it monthly from payroll terminations coded as voluntary. If your rate runs above the industry’s for three months or more, sort the departures by trade and compare your wage rates for those trades with what competitors post.
- Use openings and quits together when you price a job that starts in the spring. One reading of openings at 298,000 and quits at 198,000 is that many of the workers you would recruit already have other offers. If both stay near these levels through the winter, build a few more weeks of recruiting into the staffing plan, and check whether the labor rates in your estimate still match what you are paying new hires.
Revisions and caveats
September is preliminary. BLS will revise it on December 1, 2026, when it publishes October data. This release revised August:
- BLS first published August construction openings at 251,000, in the release at the end of September.
- The November 3 release revised August up to 262,000, an increase of 11,000.
- Against the first-published August, September would look like a gain of 47,000. Against the revised August it is 36,000.
July and June openings were unchanged at 299,000 and 298,000. BLS says monthly revisions come from reports that arrive after the first estimate and from recalculated seasonal factors.
JOLTS is a stratified random sample of about 21,000 business and government establishments across all industries, and construction is one part of it. A job counts as open only if a specific position exists, the work could start within 30 days, and the employer is recruiting from outside the establishment. Openings are a count on the last business day of the month, while hires, quits and layoffs cover the whole month. BLS revises five years of estimates with the January data each year, using updated employment benchmarks and seasonal factors, so the history in the chart will change again early next year.
The construction series swings widely. Openings rose 96,000 from October to November 2025 and fell 29,000 from January to February 2026, and the monthly change was 30,000 or more in six of the last 12 months. The 12-month average line in the chart is a steadier guide than any single month.