The JQE has no timestamp field. In order to get the actual time a job ran, the SPOOL resident Job Control Table (JCT) control block would have to be read for every job.

IOF fabricates a job timestamp for jobs on the output queue. All output jobs have one or more Job Output Element (JOE) control blocks. The JOE control block also resides in the JES2 checkpoint and is easy to fetch.

The JOE control block does have a timestamp of sorts. Field JOECRTME is the timestamp in CPU STCK units when the JOE was created.

The "DAY TIME" field on the Job List Menu lists the timestamp from JOE with the highest JOECRTME value. For most jobs this gives accurate information about when the job finished execution. There are some problems with this technique however.

1. The STCK value does not take time zone, including daylight savings time, into account. So when a jobs runs in one time zone and is displayed in a different time zone the "DAY TIME" field will seem to be incorrect. A specific example of this occurs twice a year when the clock is changed to implement daylight saving time changes. Jobs run before the clock change but displayed after the clock change will seem to have run at the adjusted time.

2. Long running jobs can spin output anytime during the execution of the job. As output prints, causing the JOE control block for the output to disappear, the apparent time of execution as displayed in the "DAY TIME" field can change.