Job Market Score Methodology v1.0

What the score is - and is not

The score is an OptimizeResume index from 0 to 100. It is not a probability of being hired, an ATS score, a direct count of occupation-specific openings, or a statistic created or endorsed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Overall score

Current Demand - 50%

• 35% JOLTS job openings rate percentile
• 25% JOLTS hires rate percentile
• 25% CES three-month employment-growth percentile
• 15% inverse JOLTS layoffs and discharges rate percentile

CES and JOLTS are primarily industry datasets. We map those monthly signals to occupations using official BLS occupation-to-industry employment shares. No page should describe the resulting estimate as a direct BLS count of openings for that occupation.

Normalization and stability

Monthly demand inputs are converted to historical percentiles against the fixed Methodology v1.0 baseline of January 2010 through December 2025 wherever the underlying series supports that history. Lower layoffs are better, so that percentile is inverted. Monthly inputs use trailing three-month signals to reduce noise. The v1.0 baseline and weights do not move each month.

Occupation Fundamentals - 30%

60% occupation employment trend and 40% inverse occupation unemployment or labor-tightness measure. We prefer detailed occupation data. If a reliable detailed measure is unavailable, a broader official occupation group may be used and the confidence rating is reduced. Absolute salary is not a job-market-health input.

Long-Term Outlook - 20%

60% BLS projected employment-growth percentile and 40% projected annual openings as a share of occupation employment percentile, normalized among comparable occupations in the same projections vintage.

Score bands and trend

80-100 Very Strong · 60-79 Strong · 40-59 Balanced · 20-39 Weak · 0-19 Very Weak.

Trend compares the current restated score with three months earlier: +5 or more is Improving, -5 or less is Weakening, otherwise Stable.

Confidence and publication gate

Confidence reflects input completeness, the coverage and precision of the occupation-to-industry mapping, and whether detailed occupation labor-tightness data or a strong proxy is available. A score is not published when required-input coverage is below 75%. High confidence generally requires at least 90% input and mapping coverage. Medium confidence generally requires at least 80% with a valid broader proxy. Anything publishable below those levels is Low confidence.

Time alignment, revisions and history

A monthly score belongs to a labor-market reference month. We do not combine different CES and JOLTS reference months and label them as one period. Annual components carry forward until the next official release. The original score first shown is preserved as the published score. When BLS revises underlying data, we calculate a restated score without overwriting that original value. Public trend charts use restated history by default.