Yahoo Finance Writes: Plenty of Job Openings, but Not For You
At the end of 2004 the ratio of job openings to workers was about the same as today, but the unemployment rate has moved from a tame 5.4% back then to a painful 7.4% today. So why aren’t job hunters snagging those positions and driving down the unemployment rate, as they did in the past?
The “skills gap”
It seems increasingly likely that many people simply don’t qualify for jobs that are open, which highlights the “skills gap” that seems to be developing as laid-off blue-collar workers compete for jobs in a digital-information economy. Manufacturing has lost nearly 2 million jobs since 2006, for example, and while there’s been a modest recovery during the past two years, the odds of reaching the earlier employment peak seem remote. In construction, the real-estate recovery has brought back some jobs, but there’s still another 2-million-job deficit compared with prerecession levels.
Overall, there are about 4.4. million job openings, according to Labor Dept. data. That works out to 2.8% of the labor force, the same as it was at the end of 2004. With 11.5 million Americans looking for work, you’d think they would quickly grab all the jobs that are open.
Based on my research I do not see how the employment situation will improve any time soon. If anything, I believe that unemployment is being under reported throughout government data. There are just way too many people who are working part time jobs, but who would like to find a full time job.
From a macro economic perspective I do not see anything that would change or reverse this trend. Quite the opposite. With upcoming US Recession, decline in the stock market and continuation of credit defaults, I do not see how the employment situation can improve.
On top of it all you have multiple other trends such as outsourcing and robotics that are taking jobs away. As such, I expect the employment situation to remain the same in the best case scenario or deteriorate significantly if the US economy slips back into the recessionary environment as I anticipate. Bottom line is, if you have a full time job……treasure it.
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