South By North Strategies, Ltd.

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

The total number of job openings in January was 2.8 million.  The total number of unemployed workers was 13.9 million (unemployment data are from the Current Population Survey).  The ratio of unemployed workers to job openings was thus 5.0-to-1 in January, unchanged from the revised December ratio.  January marks 23 months that the “job seeker’s ratio” has been at or above 5-to-1. By comparison, the highest it got in the early 2000s downturn was 2.8-to-1.  A job seeker’s ratio of 5-to-1 means that for 4 out of 5 unemployed workers, there simply are no jobs.