For Immediate Release: Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Contact: Phoebe Silag or Karen Conner, news@epi.org 202-775-8810

New data released today provides evidence that the recovery continues to edge in the right direction, with the job-seekers ratio, the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings, falling by one-tenth to 3.4-to-1. While still a major improvement from its peak of 6.7-to-1 in summer 2009, today’s job-seekers ratio shows the odds are still stacked strongly against job seekers. In her analysis, EPI economist Elise Gould explains that unemployed workers far outnumber job openings in every sector. “This underscores that by far the main cause of today’s persistent high unemployment is a broad-based lack of demand for workers—and not, as is often claimed, available workers lacking the skills needed for the sectors with job openings,” said Gould.

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