The next jobs report is almost here. Here's how to read it if you're job hunting.

A good jobs report doesn't necessarily mean it's a good time to look for work.

Misreading the market could have real consequences for your career.

Understanding job market data can only tell you so much about your own prospects.

Want to know if it's a good time to buy a home ? Check listings Zillow and look up the latest mortgage rates.

Want to know if it's a good time to buy a car ? Browse cars online and check rates on auto loans.

But if you want to know whether it's a good time to look for a job , things are more complicated.

You can scan job listings, but if you find five roles you seem qualified for, how much does that really tell you? You don't know how many people you're competing with, how you stack up against them, or whether the company is even actively hiring for the role .

Perhaps you turn to economic data for an answer. But depending on which numbers you look at, you can come away with very different impressions of how the job market is doing. That's something to keep in mind with the next monthly jobs report due Friday.

Headlines about the Bureau of Labor Statistics' most recent August jobs report might have given job-seekers some hope. The US added 162,000 jobs, far more than the 55,000 economists expected.

But that net growth doesn't necessarily reflect a hiring boom.

Think of the labor market as a sink full of water, said Kory Kantenga, LinkedIn's head of economics for the Americas. The water level represents the number of people employed. Water pouring in from the tap represents new hires, while water drains out of the sink via quits, layoffs, and retirements.

In today's low-hire, low-fire labor market, the tap is running at a trickle — relatively few new jobs are pouring in. Yet even fewer jobs are draining out, so the water level is still rising: The economy has added net jobs in nine of the past 12 months. Hiring and quits have both slowed considerably, and layoffs are relatively low.

In other words, the rate of hiring can be low even while the economy adds jobs.

Why understanding the job market matters

Knowing when the job market is or isn't favorable can help workers decide whether to pursue a new job, switch careers, quit without another job lined up, or prepare for a potential layoff.

Kantenga said he believes there's a "communications disconnect" between what job market statistics actually measure and how people sometimes interpret them.

"The decisions that we are making today that are going to potentially affect us for the rest of our lives are based around our perception of how the labor market is today," Kantenga said.