Lightcast uses the government data provided within JOLTS as a benchmark to confirm our data is in line with the current labor market trends, and to identify any potential anomalies.
Differences:
Lightcast removes duplicate postings. For additional information please see our FAQ on Deduplication or our Methodology article for full detail.
JOLTS data appear in all subsequent months a posting is active - which creates an inflated job postings count.
Benchmarking: Dating back to 2013, the share of monthly jobs online as captured by Lightcast is, on average, 99.1% of the jobs captured by JOLTS. In some cases, an industry may be under-represented due primarily to vacancies that are not typically advertised online, for example construction, food prep, or arts and entertainment.