Unemployed Workers per Job Opening Statistics

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out information on the employment rate as well as a less-often-cited statistic on job openings, from which we can derive the number of unemployed people per job opening.
• In December 2000, there were approximately 1.1 people per job opening. During the peak of the recession of the early 2000s, the ratio increased to around 2.8 people per job opening.
• In the peak of the current recession there were approximately 6.2 people for each job opening. The number has fallen a bit from last summer’s peak to around 4.7 people per job opening.

Tagged as: Jobs, Statistics, Unemployment