South By North Strategies, Ltd.

From the Economic Policy Institute’s analysis of the September version of the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) …

The September Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed job openings declined in September by 100,000, to 3.6 million. On the other hand, the number of unemployed workers dropped 456,000 in September to 12.1 million (unemployment data are from the Current Population Survey and can be found here). Taken together, this means the “job-seekers ratio”—the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings—was unchanged in September from the revised August ratio of 3.4-to-1.
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The job-seekers ratio has been improving fairly steadily since its peak of 6.7-to-1 in summer 2009. Despite this improvement, odds remain stacked against job seekers; the ratio has been 3-to-1 or greater for four years, since September 2008. A job-seekers ratio above 3-to-1 means there are no jobs for more than two out of three workers.