Job Openings At Record Low: 50 Percent Fewer Than 2007

Some stark news was buried in the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, which should come as a sobering reminder for Americans currently looking for a job.

Since the job market's peak in June 2007, there are approximately 50 percent fewer job openings for the 15.3 million U.S. citizens who are officially unemployed.

In June of 2007, there were 4.7 million job openings in the United States. In November 2009 that number had fallen to 2.4 million, reports the BLS.

The job openings rate, which reflects the number of job openings as a percentage of total employment, has been steady at 1.8 or 1.9 percent since last March. But, as the AP reports, the larger picture is actually much worse:

"There were nearly 6.4 unemployed workers, on average, for each available job at the end of November, according to Labor Department data released Tuesday. That's up from 6.1 in October and a record high.

There were 1.7 jobless people for each opening in December 2007, when the recession began.

Job openings fell sharply to 2.42 million in November from 2.57 million in October, according to the department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey.

In November, the construction, leisure and hospitality, arts and entertainment and food services and accommodations industries led the way with the top hiring rates -- the number of hires as a percentage of total employment. Government jobs fared the worst, with hiring rates of just 1.3 percent.

Though the most recent national unemployment rate held steady at 10 percent, there may be good reason to believe the government's upcoming revisions to the figures will reflect an even darker employment picture. Last month, U.S. employers eliminated 85,000 jobs, per the BLS's monthly report, but analysts expected a loss of just 8,000 jobs nationally.

Here's Zero Hedge's analysis of some of the job data minutiae:

In November the hires-fires differential was for a job loss of -164,000, which differs materially from the gain of +4,000 called for in the Current Employment Statistics survey. Look for more downward revision to November payroll data.

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Comments

[berrycooda]

03:54 PM on 01/13/2010

Face it....We are now America....Made in China....

Look at China...looks like America used to when
all the factories were here.
Too bad that when Nafta started, somebody wasn't intelligent enough
to look ahead and not make it so easy for these companies to ship goods back here cheaper than making things in the U.S.

So...we are a country of imported tech and other workers and
outsourced work that used to be done here in the U.S.
Pity the younger generation.. If we aren't careful, we will be forced
into socialism because we are part way there with all the people laid off and out of work who are collecting unemployment, welfare and
food stamps....
All that is lacking, I guess, is the insurance "free for all" and I do mean that literally.

[frustratedNGOperson]

05:29 PM on 01/16/2010

If we continue to believe that government should not help create jobs or direct growth, we will continue to be sold down the road by free enterprise.

[my whitehouse]

11:21 AM on 01/13/2010

hat tip to http://iamned-website.blogspot.com

[thwtco]

08:36 AM on 01/13/2010

Jobs in this country that's meaningful, Construction known as house building, backbone of the American Economy, Legal babies by legal parents, are the only two things really made in America. That is why government touts housing so highly, all the rest is outsource jobs put together here? Just think if we were to bring our jobs back home where they belong, we as Americans would be a solid country once more.
People scream about Unions are the reason jobs go out of this country, not so BOTTOM line is the most important factor with conglomerates. Share the wealth is not in the morals of any company they want it all.
Without the unions we would be working for starvation wages, look how they holler about raising Minimum
Wages, its a scare tactic that's the same as terror, scare tactics. Read the papers, internet every day the conglomerates and there Zillion dollar BONUSES, all on the back of the unrepresented, NON UNION Tax Payers, like it or not with Unions at least we get our Fair share, Like back when this country was being formed, together we Stand Divided we Fall, go it alone is what the conglomerates want in this COUNTRY, they want you to hate UNIONS

[CologneCitizen]

03:37 AM on 01/14/2010

You are right on all points. ´

Scare tactics, division, smoke screens, religion and false patriotism make the American voter constantly go against his very own interests.

[belttari159]

05:33 AM on 01/13/2010

Since NAFTA the only jobs created have been in the retail and service industry. These jobs pay far less than the manufacturing jobs that were lost. A lot of the people that lost these manufacturing jobs tried to start their own business, but running a business is not for everyone. Opening a business is a huge responsibility. Employees take a huge risk going to work for these small businesses that are probably going to fail. The new companies don’t offer medical insurance, or retirement plans.
The first step to a recovery in the United States is to repeal NAFTA. It will not cost the taxpayers any money.
The second step is to right a tax code that will only give writ offs on capital investments made in America.
See how simple solutions can be. It is time the government we elected take care of us, not the corporations we the major stokehold citizens of foreign countries.

[Aytaç Samrıoğlu]

04:01 AM on 01/13/2010

Yes, as Obama Slogan : ''Change'' has come to the US and world markets , but nothing changed postively, thing are getting even worse every each day (Not: he had not promised ''change for the better '' )

[my whitehouse]

02:34 AM on 01/13/2010

with 10% unemployment still no recovery
hat tip to http://iamned-website.blogspot.com

[World Citizen]

02:31 AM on 01/13/2010

Thank you globalization!

If I'm a greedy business owner, I would outsource everything I possibly can. If I can't get any foreign worker through the H1B program, I will use Indian recruiters to recruit foreign workers that are already in the States that want to do extra work as long as I can lower my cost. Who cares about unemployed americans! The bottom-line is my profit and how I can justify my salaries and bonuses.

... Let's see. How many executives in companies in the United States do you think care about our state of high unemployment?

[Jeffrey Ray Neal]

01:21 AM on 01/13/2010

Lastly we need to REFORM WALLSTREET OUT OF POLITICS! That would start with campaign finance reform and if I had my way watching a few heads roll with a reconditioned guillotine.. The tee-baggers have it right in one way, we do need our country back, but giving it to the fascist greedy parasitic monopolists disguised as "capitalists" that have gotten us to where we are now with their corruption is not the solution. We need to extract the parasites. Eliminate these corporate welfare bums. Once again I'd love to see us use the guillotine for that but a more pragmatic and up-to-date method to solve that problem would be to:

1) Take away their money, make them live on the starting salaries that they are paying their entry level workers.
2) Anyone making more than six figures on any aspect of war should be humping a pack and a rifle in the armpit of Afghanistan fighting for their right to be war profiteers.

We need do do all that is in our power to revitalize the middle class.. I mean if all this bail out money had gone to families and the people in trouble and not these corrupt banking institutions we would not be in this situation. People would have a lot more expendable income and we'd be spending a lot more and we'd have more jobs. Etc etc.

Well this was fun, for MY VERY FIRST BLOG! Hopefully there will be more to come.

[Jeffrey Ray Neal]

01:20 AM on 01/13/2010

We need to ELIMINATE OUTDATED FOSSIL FUEL TECHNOLOGY NOW and go to solar and other concepts for our energy needs. We need energy choices that are effecient and more affordable then our current system. Choices that are sustainable and environmentally friendly. Ideas like E85 gas we great, actually heard about them when we were paying 5$ a gallon at the pump and then the unleaded gas price mysteriously plummeted to $2.50 in just a few weeks. That must have been supply and demand, but wait, wasn't it like Oct. when the prices came down, just as the weather gets colder.. So odd, usually that's when they hike the price up even more! Implementing new systems that are green would make new jobs and be the next new exciting merge in technology. It would serve as a huge economic stimulus. The Green Party actually has a lot of good ideas on their platform that would be worth seriously considering.

[Jeffrey Ray Neal]

01:17 AM on 01/13/2010

Address the issue of HUMAN CAPITOL: In the world we live in the need for human capital is being diminished by both technology and processes that do everything they can to save money (ie. do the same or more work with fewer people so big business can make more $$). I think one example of that would be to have a 30 hour work week. Theoretically if we dropped the hours 10 percent for full time that would add 10 percent more jobs to the workforce. My wife, with a college degree, worked at Target for just over a year working 38 hours a week managing the Gig Harbor Target marker/grocery. She was bringing in about $1,200/month, no insurance, no benefits, not sick leave, no paid vacation, no rights as a full time employee. Get these large retailer like Wal Mart, Target give ALL their employees full time employment with benefits, not just their management staff. If we had a 30 hour week for full time adjustment then My wife would at least have benefits and some legal protection.

[Jeffrey Ray Neal]

01:15 AM on 01/13/2010

Wow, so is this an sign of the economic stimulus? This problem has been in the making for the past 30 years, or in all reality when we rebuild Japan after WW2. Its called the trade deficit.. that is the real problem. Obama can't just pull 15 million jobs out of his ar@# and make it all better. the real problem is TRADE DEFICIT.. Period, We have been hijacked and sold out by the blood sucking corporatists that are running our economy to the ground. and profiting off of fear and warmongering.. Frankly I think a good idea would be to follow the French's example, maybe see if they have a few of those old guillotines stashed away in some warehouse that we can borrow.. But in all seriousness to address the job issue we would have to do a few things..

HEAVY TARIFFS - Isn't it interesting that the Chinese currency has maintained such a low value?.. With all their progress their currency has hardly appreciated.. So offset that stuff with tariffs... But in all reality there is no way that is going to happen.. WAY too much US money in China right now..

MORE TAX INCENTIVES for companies that do not outsource their work or get their processed materials from other countries.

PASS REAL HEALTH REFORM so that there is less burden on smaller companies (which represent the largest group of employers in the US).

[mudshark12]

11:57 PM on 01/12/2010

"In November, the construction, leisure and hospitality, arts and entertainment and food services and accommodations industries led the way with the top hiring rates -- the number of hires as a percentage of total employment. Government jobs fared the worst, with hiring rates of just 1.3 percent."

A quote from the post above. You will notice they didn't even bother to mention Industrial jobs, Manufacturing jobs or Engineering and related technical jobs; most probably because there WEREN'T any to mention.

A lot of people (myself included) are starting to be dissatisfied with Obama's lackluster performance in stimulating the economy, we begged him NOT to bail out Wall St & the banks and he went ahead and did it anyway. The banks took the money and are NOT making any loans.

Obama is a great orator and makes pretty speeches full of generalities, now its time he helps the rank & file citizens out instead.

It would also help if he could pull our troops out of Iraq & Afghanistan as the USA can't afford it any more.

[Whizz]

12:44 AM on 01/13/2010

Stimulation comes from Big Business. Big Business isn't hiring because Americans aren't spending. Why? Because The Federal Reserve has squeezed the life out of the economy. Where oh where will the next asset bubble be, where oh where will it be?

[microwave68]

10:17 PM on 01/12/2010

Change has come to the US indeed , well you gotta give it to obama he only said change he didnt say change for the better :)
Obviously jobs is not a priority for him and the other airheads in DC otherwise they would have put the whole healthcare BS that nobody wants off and take care of getting jobs back to the US first !

[nopilikia]

11:22 PM on 01/12/2010

Can't argue that. Did say change but no details. As to healthcare fully agree, forget that pork barrel for now. Americans need work.

[T Pol]

11:46 PM on 01/12/2010

Like Obama, Dislike Obama, matters not. This would have been the same under McCain.

The wheels were already set in motion and the Machine is running the country...into the ground for the profit of a few.

[cruisepuppy7452a]

10:05 PM on 01/12/2010

Gee is anyone surprised/ The lies keep coming and obama botts keep trying to sell the lies to the public. Hello, we are not drinking the kool aide anymore. When you see that many people out of work, terrified of losing what little jobs they have left, its not something you can spin with kool aide. better make it a double scotch with a twist, and even that, its not going to sell. The lies have to stop, the money for the wars has to stop, and people need to be able to go back to work with living wages, single payer, homes intact, without fear of repercussions. Anything less is just not going to work. We are tired of the lies, tired of the spin docs trying to tell us how great we have it. Oh really? The guy who blasted 9 people in my home town tht lost his job, ya think he is going to buy that one? Don't think so as he killed himself and the 3 of that 9. Enough is enough, we need someone in office who is going to represent the people, not special intrests or corporate. The people come first.

[Whizz]

10:30 PM on 01/12/2010

Obama botts? Give me a break!
How bout' pointing the finger where it belongs, the Central Bank (i.e.,THE Federal Reserve). You know, the fourth Branch of Government that is chaired by a non-elected official. Not until, I repeat, not until the Central Bank is finished with its policy (and even Congress doesn't knowwhat that policy is) will this financial shakedown be resolved. The banks won't lend, why? Because they cater to the requests of their boss, the Central Bank. You really need to educate yourself. I

[ElleVelle]

09:34 PM on 01/12/2010

1. I am a fan of Obama
2. He inherited a big f-ing mess
3. Not sure ANYONE could clean this sh*t up

4. I hope Armageddon hits before my Student Loans become due ....

[nopilikia]

11:27 PM on 01/12/2010

Armageddon no help. GS has agreed to finance and all student loans will be collected.