For Immediate Release: Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Contact: Phoebe Silag or Karen Conner, news@epi.org 202-775-8810

Ratio of unemployed workers to job openings increases

New data released today show the Job-Seekers Ratio increased in April to 3.7-to-1 from March’s ratio of 3.4-to-1.  Despite this increase, the ratio has been slowly but steadily improving since its peak of 6.7-to-1 in the summer of 2009.  EPI economist Heidi Shierholz says, “It is likely that April’s increase represents a month-to-month variability in the data rather than a reversal of that trend. However, the odds are still against job seekers; a job-seekers ratio above 3-to-1 means that for more than two out of three unemployed workers, there simply are no jobs.”