15 states with the highest job openings rate, December 2025

West Virginia posted the highest all-industry openings rate in the December 2025 file, 5.5.

The U.S. total-nonfarm rate that month is 4.0. The figure covers every industry, not one healthcare occupation and not a count of posted jobs.

Row 15 is Minnesota at 4.3. The lowest rate in the same file is 2.9 in Washington.

Ranked table

Takeaways

• West Virginia has the highest all-industry openings rate in this file, 5.5.
• The U.S. rate for December 2025 is 4.0.
• Row 15 is Minnesota at 4.3.
• The lowest rate in the same file is 2.9 in Washington.

For recruiters

• Use the lead row as the comparison.
• Read the label before you forward the table.

FAQ

Are these posted wages or open jobs?

No. The table is a government survey or a designation file.

What should a recruiter do first?

Follow the recruiter note on this page.

Source: BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, total nonfarm, December 2025.

Related hiring pages

Methodology

Rates are the BLS JOLTS total-nonfarm job openings rate for December 2025, for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The U.S. rate is 4.0. The table shows the 15 highest. The lowest rate in the same file is 2.9 in Washington. The rate is all industries. It is not a healthcare job-listing count. The table ranks published cells. It is not a forecast of hiring difficulty and it is not a tally of openings posted by employers. Where a state has hiring pages, the state name links to those pages. A state with no metro on the hiring grid still appears when the source file publishes the figure, and that row has no hiring link.

Sources

• BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, total nonfarm · December 2025