11.10.2011 Policy Points

Job Openings In September

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

By comparison, in December 2000 the job-seeker’s ratio was 1.1-to-1. Furthermore, the highest this ratio ever got in the early 2000s’ downturn was 2.8-to-1. September marks just over three years in a row that the job-seeker’s ratio has been at or above 3-to-1. Put another way:  We’ve been above the highest level of job seekers to jobs reached in the early 2000s’ recession for the last three years. And we’ve been substantially above 4-to-1 for the last two years and nine months. A job-seeker’s ratio of more than 4-to-1 means that for more than three out of four unemployed workers, there simply are no jobs. Because the job-seekers ratio has been above 4-to-1 for this long—two years and nine months or 143 weeks—the extended unemployment insurance benefits, which last a maximum of 99 weeks, remain crucial.

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