Too Much Competition For Job Openings

The economy continues to destroy jobs at a much faster pace than it is creating jobs. The ratio of unemployed workers to job openings has skyrocketed by over 200% since 2007, which means greater competition for fewer jobs and longer periods of unemployment. See the following post from Economist's View.

The ratio of the number of unemployed to the number of job openings suggests that the current weakness in labor markets is likely to persist:

A look at another job market number, Macroblog: ...At the end of August there were estimated to be fewer than 2.4 million job openings, equal to only 1.8 percent of the total filled and unfilled positions—a new record low. This is an especially significant issue given the large number of people who are looking for work. The ratio of the number of unemployed to the number of job openings was greater than 6 in August. In contrast, that ratio was under 1.5 in 2007 and previously peaked at 2.8 in mid-2003, suggesting that finding a job right now is extremely difficult...



The quit rate moved back down to its record low of 1.3 percent, as relatively few people want to leave a job voluntarily in the face of such a weak labor market. At the same time, the rate of involuntary separations moved up from 1.6 percent to 1.8 percent, not far below the peak of 1.9 percent in April.

The low probability of finding a job has also caused the average amount of time spent unemployed to rise substantially. ...

Labor markets need more help. This article has been republished from Mark Thoma's blog, Economist's View.