Projected Annual Job Openings: General and operations managers (U.S.)

## What this measures

The number of job openings BLS projects for general and operations managers (SOC 11-1021) in an average year of its ten-year projection, in thousands. BLS projects openings as the jobs that need filling each year, on average over the next ten years: new jobs from growth, plus replacements for workers who retire or leave the labour force, plus replacements for workers who move to a different occupation. Each point is one projection, dated December 31 of its base year: the 2025–35 projections are the 2025 point. Annual since the 2019–29 projections.

## Why it matters

Openings, not growth, are where hiring happens: an occupation that is not growing still hires to replace the people who leave it, and in high-turnover jobs such as food service and retail those replacements are most of the openings. It is the best public guide to which jobs employers will be filling.

## How to read it

Compare occupations on the same projection. A change from one point to the next is a change in BLS's projection (new base-year employment, new assumptions), not hiring that happened. Openings can be large in occupations with low pay and high turnover.

## What it does not say

It is a projection, not a count of job postings (see JOLTS for those). It does not say who will fill the openings, what they pay, or where they are. Openings are an average over ten years; any one year can differ.

## Source

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, Table 1.10 (occupational separations and openings). Public domain.