Following job execution, JES2 queues each output unit of work for a job according to a priority based on the volume of output represented by that work unit. Alternatively, you can specify a priority on the JCL OUTPUT statement to control job queuing.

Job output elements (JOEs) are created by JES2 during output processing (or during execution in the case of spinoff data sets.) Each JOE represents a unit of output work to JES2 and is queued in order of output priority. If a priority was not specified on the JCL OUTPUT statement, a separate JOE priority is computed for each JOE using the tables specified by the PRIORITY parameter on the OUTPRTY initialization statement in combination with either the RECORD parameter statement for line data, the PAGE parameter for page data, or both the RECORD and PAGE parameters for data containing both line and page data.

The JOE priority is computed based on the total number of print lines, punch cards, or pages in the data set which the JOE represents. If the JOE represents a data set containing both line and page data, the output priority is the average of the priorities specified by the RECORD and PAGE parameters, respectively. The default table values for the priority calculation are presented in z/OS JES2 Initialization and Tuning Reference, SA32-0992.