Job openings drop in August
Job seekers line up during a job fair in Uniondale earlier this summer. (June 8, 2011) Credit: Steve Pfost
WASHINGTON -- U.S. employers advertised fewer jobs in August than the previous month. Some may have pulled back on hiring plans in the face of wild stock market swings and renewed recession fears.
Companies and governments posted nearly 3.1 million job openings in August, down from 3.2 million in July, the Labor Department said Wednesday.
The drop was the first in four months, although July's openings were the highest in nearly three years.
Still, there's heavy competition for each job. Nearly 14 million people were out of work in August, which means an average of 4.6 unemployed workers competed for each opening. That's worse than July, when the ratio was 4.3. In a healthy economy, the ratio is roughly 2 to 1.
Total openings are well above the 2.1 million that were available in July 2009, which was one month after the recession officially ended. But they are far below the 4.4 million jobs advertised in December 2007, when the recession began. On the positive side, employers laid off 1.66 million people in August, the Labor Department's report said. That's down from nearly 1.7 million in July.
