For Immediate Release: Tuesday, March 13, 2011
Contact: Phoebe Silag or Karen Conner, news@epi.org 202-775-8810

Job openings survey shows openings and hires both dropped in January

The ratio of unemployed workers to job openings was 3.7-to-1 in January, unchanged from the revised December ratio of 3.7-to-1. But as EPI economist Heidi Shierholz discusses in her analysis of today’s Job-Seekers Ratio, the number of job openings decreased by 81,000 in January to 3.5 million. “The softness in January’s job openings is inconsistent with the strength of January’s employment and unemployment report,” said Shierholz. “These inconsistencies underscore that it is too soon to declare that we have entered a self-sustained period of robust job growth.” Click here for details on the Job-Seekers Ratio.

Job-seekers ratio: http://bit.ly/yK4kd8