{"id":13624,"date":"2015-03-11T07:00:29","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T12:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/jobs-situation-looks-brighter-as-employers-seek-to-fill-more-positions\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:20:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:20:08","slug":"jobs-situation-looks-brighter-as-employers-seek-to-fill-more-positions","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/03\/11\/jobs-situation-looks-brighter-as-employers-seek-to-fill-more-positions\/","title":{"rendered":"Jobs situation looks brighter as employers seek to fill more positions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Since<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

While two-thirds of Americans see at least some improvement in the jobs situation from the depths of the Great Recession, most (60%) say the jobs recovery has been only partial, according to a Pew Research Center report<\/a> earlier this month. But by at least one measure \u2013 the number of unemployed people per job opening \u2013 things are just about back to normal.<\/p>\n\n

In January, there were 1.8 unemployed\u00a0people per open position, according to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey<\/a> (or JOLTS) and jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While that may sound disheartening, it’s actually well within pre-recession norms: Between January 2005 and December 2007, the number of unemployed people per opening varied between 1.45 and 2.17, and averaged 1.68 over the entire three-year period.<\/p>\n\n

But once the recession turned from ordinary into “Great,” the unemployed-to-openings ratio soared \u2013 peaking at 6.8 in July 2009, a month after the recession’s official end. It’s been trending downward since then as employers\u00a0have stepped up hiring.<\/p>\n\n

There were nearly 5 million openings in January (after adjusting for seasonal variations), the most since the heady days of the dot-com bubble, according to the JOLTS report<\/a>. The job openings rate (openings as a percentage of total employment plus openings) was 3.4% for the fourth straight month, the highest level since April 2001. (To count as a job opening, an employer must be actively recruiting from outside to fill a specific position that has work available within 30 days.)<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

The Pew Research survey found that public perceptions of improvement in the job situation had risen sharply since September 2013, when only 47% said jobs had fully (2%) or partially (45%) recovered. Although the rosier views spanned partisan and income divides, Democrats were much more likely than Republicans and independents to say they saw a jobs recovery.<\/p>\n\n

If you’re looking for work, service industries in the South and West might\u00a0be your best bet. Those regions had the highest job openings rates in January (3.6% each), and the sectors with the highest rates were leisure and hospitality (particularly accommodation and food services, at 5.1%) and professional and business services (4.5%).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were 1.8 unemployed people per job opening in January, another indicator of the improving jobs situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[234,232,440],"bylines":[842],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[521,525,529,526,527,528,522,520,523,517,518,519],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-13624","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-business-workplace","category-economic-conditions","category-recessions-recoveries","bylines-drew-desilver","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-data-labs","research-teams-global","research-teams-global-migration-and-demography","research-teams-internet","research-teams-journalism","research-teams-methods","research-teams-pew-research-center","research-teams-politics","research-teams-race-and-ethnicity","research-teams-religion","research-teams-science","research-teams-social-trends"],"label":"Short 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