Job Crisis: Nearly Five Unemployed for Each Job Opening
Job openings rose in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, however, not nearly enough to put a dent in the nation’s unemployment rate, which is nearing double-digits.
With 3.0 million job openings and 14.6 million unemployed Americans, the July report found that there were 4.8 unemployed workers for each job opening in America, according to The Economic Policy Institute.
While that is a slight improvement from the 5.1 unemployed workers for each job opening in June, it is still a sign of a struggling economy and an indication that unemployment will remain relatively high for some time.
The high recorded in the JOLTS Survey was posted last November, when there were 6.2 unemployed workers for each job opening. During the last recession, in the early part of the decade, the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings reached a high of just 2.8-to-1.
Prior to the start of the recession in early 2007, the unemployed to opening ratio reached an average of just 1.5-to-1.
If those marginally attached to the workforce were included in the number – those include involuntary part-time workers and those who have given up on looking for work and are no longer included in the unemployment figure – it would rise to 5.7-to-1 in July.
This rate of growth is nowhere near what is needed to bring the unemployment rate down. It is time for bold action to create jobs and put America back to work,” the EPI’s Heidi Shierholz wrote.
One positive sign from the Labor Department’s report was the fact that job openings increased by 178,000 in July, a 2.3 percent increase. Still, that is hardly enough to close the massive gap between those seeking jobs and openings.
What’s more, the EPI says, is that given the fact that most people apply for multiple jobs, it is much more than 4.8 workers competing for job openings.
“It is the lack of hiring that largely accounts for the ‘recession feeling’ in the job market,” Henry Mo, an economist at Credit Suisse, told National Public Radio.
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