South By North Strategies, Ltd.

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

The total number of job openings in April was 3.0 million, and the total number of unemployed workers was 13.7 million (unemployment is from the Current Population Survey).  As a result, the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings was 4.6-to-1 in April, a deterioration from the March ratio of 4.3-to-1.  April marks two years and four months that the “job seekers ratio” has been substantially above 4-to-1. A job seekers ratio of 4-to-1 means that for 3 out of 4 unemployed workers, there simply are no jobs.   The highest this ratio ever got in the early 2000s downturn was 2.8-to-1 in the middle of 2003.