hiring projections

Job JOLTS - There are 3.7 Unemployed People Per Job Opening for April 2012

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The BLS JOLTS, or Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey reports a dismal and pathetic jobs market. The April 2012 statistics show there were 3.66 official unemployed persons for every position available*. There were 3,416,000 job openings for April 2012, a -8.69% change from the previous month of 3,741,000. Openings are still way below pre-recession levels of 4.7 million. Job openings have increased 56% from their July 2009 trough, yet opportunities are miles away from the 1.8 persons per job opening ratio at the start of the recession, December 2007. Below is the graph of April official unemployed, 12.5 million, per job opening.

 

job openings per official unemployed

 

If one takes the official broader definition of unemployment, or U-6, the ratio becomes 6.65** unemployed people per each job opening for February. The April U-6 unemployment rate was 14.5%. Below is the graph of number of unemployed, using the broader U-6 unemployment definition, per job opening.

Job JOLTS - Job Openings for June 2011

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JOLTS stands for Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The June 2011 statistics show there were 4.53 official unemployed people hunting for a job to every position available. There were only 3,109,000 job openings for June 2011, almost the same, +2.47%, from the previous month of 3,034,000. The change is flat from last month, an absolutely horrific jobs market.

Manpower reporting record drop in hiring plans for the next year

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The almighty permatemp agency, Manpower, keeps track of hiring projections. They are reporting for Q4, 2009 employers' hiring plans are at an all time low. Manpower has been keeping track since 1962.

A net -3% of employers said they'll hire in the fourth quarter, down from -2% in the third quarter, on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Milwaukee-based firm's survey of more than 28,000 employers. Before this year, the survey's previous low point was a net 1% hiring outlook for the third quarter of 1982.

A year ago, a seasonally adjusted net 9% of firms said they would hire in the fourth quarter. The Manpower survey measures the percentage of firms planning to hire minus those intending layoffs. Manpower doesn't measure the number of jobs. The survey's margin of error is +/- 0.49%.