The national jobless rate is down to 8.3 percent (“down” being a relative term), but there are other ways to look at the job market. One if them is the ratio between unemployed workers and job openings.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, that ratio was 3.9-to-1 in December. In other words, 3.9 unemployed for every available job. That’s a great improvement over November’s ratio, which was 4.3-to-1. The ratio got as back as 6.9-to-1 in the summer of 2009, but inthe early 2000s downturn, it never got worse than 2.8-to-1, and in December of 2000, the ratio was 1.1-to-1. (In other words, if you went in and applied for a job and didn’t either set the interview room on fire or get caught stealing the interviewer’s wallet, you probably got the job.)
In raw numbers, there were 9.7 million more jobless workers than job openings in December. So, 3.9 is a good number, but let’s hope better ones are on the horizon. It’s been more than three years since the ratio was below 3-to-1. Breaking that streak can’t come soon enough.