The quality of US job openings data is deteriorating: Only roughly 1 in 4 businesses approached by the BLS now agree to participate in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), near the lowest since 2022. By comparison, before the 2020 pandemic, the so-called initiation rate oscillated between 50% and 70%. Meanwhile, the first closing response rate, measuring firms that provide data in time for the initial JOLTS estimate, stands at just ~30%, near the lowest proportion on record. This percentage has halved over the last 10 years. Similarly, the second closing response rate is ~35%, also near the lowest on record. The BLS therefore releases job openings data based on a historically small fraction of responses, before revising the figures as additional responses come in. Official US labor market data is becoming increasingly unreliable.(The Kobeissi Letter)