South By North Strategies, Ltd.

From the Economic Policy Institute’s analysis of the October 2012 version of the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) …

The October Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed job openings increased in October by 128,000, to 3.7 million. However, the number of job seekers also increased in October—170,000 were added to the ranks of the unemployed, bringing the October total to 12.3 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—ticked down slightly in October to 3.3-to-1 from the September 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 July 2009. Despite this improvement, odds remain stacked against job seekers; the ratio has been 3-to-1 or greater for more than four years. A job-seekers ratio above 3-to-1 means there are no jobs for more than two out of three unemployed workers. To put today’s ratio of 3.3-to-1 in perspective, it is useful to note that the highest the ratio ever got in the early 2000s downturn was 2.9-to-1 in September 2003. In a labor market with strong job opportunities, the ratio would be close to 1-to-1, as it was in December 2000 (when it was 1.1-to-1).