Economix: Four Workers for Every Job Opening

The job market still isn’t good, but at least it’s on its way back.

There were just 4.3 unemployed workers for every available job in March, the best ratio in over two years, according to a new Labor Department report. When conditions were worst, there were nearly seven workers per opening.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, via Haver Analytics

March’s jobless-to-jobs figure was still well below its level before the recession, however.

On the other side of the ledger, the raw number of layoffs and discharges continue to be near lows:

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, via Haver Analytics

The moral is that the  source of problems in the job market isn’t that people are still being laid off, but that those laid off during the Great Recession have nowhere to go. And as we’ve noted before, the longer these workers take to find companies that will hire them, the less employable they become.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=06925fcb1a29b4afd671b6c0d0119da1