South By North Strategies, Ltd.

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

… While the job seekers ratio has been slowly improving since its peak of 6.9-to-1 in the summer of 2009, today’s data release marks three years and three months that the ratio has been above 3-to-1. A job seekers ratio of more than 3-to-1 means that for more than two out of every three unemployed workers, there simply are no jobs. In December, there were 9.7 million more unemployed workers than job openings. Furthermore, the lack of job openings is in no way limited to particular industries such as construction—unemployed workers dramatically outnumber job openings across every major industry.
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Three years and three months—169 weeks—of a job seekers ratio above 3-to-1 is why the current extended unemployment insurance benefits, which last a maximum of 99 weeks, remain crucial. There are 5.5 million people in this country who have been unemployed for more than half a year, up from 1.2 million in 2007.  It is not, of course, that these millions of workers have become lazy, unskilled, or unproductive, it is that there are not enough jobs available. New research by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco shows that increased unemployment duration is primarily due to “the severe and persistent weakness in aggregate demand for labor.”  Nevertheless, Congress is now debating whether to renew or cut back on legislation that extends unemployment insurance benefits for the long-term unemployed. It is too early to cut back. …