There’s a Job Opening for Every Unemployed Worker

For the first time ever, there’s a job opening for every unemployed worker, MarketWatch staffer Steve Goldstein reports.

In March, there were 6.55 million job openings and 6.59 million unemployed, meaning there were 1.01 unemployed workers for every job, according to the latest data from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

In July 2009, just as the U.S. exited the Great Recession, there were 6.65 unemployed people for every available job.

But the March data indicates that companies are having a hard time finding the right workers to fill their positions. A separate survey from the National Federation of Independent Business found that 88% of companies hiring or trying to hire reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill. Other business surveys report similar complaints.