So says a FRED blog post from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It’s really more like 58 if you’re rounding to the nearest whole number.
The FRED data go back to 2001, and December 2021 was the lowest the ratio has ever been, at 55 unemployed workers per 100 job openings.
The pandemic recession was over in May 2020. From then to January 2022 (the most recent month with data available) is 20 months. In March 2011, 20 months after the Great Recession was over, there were 421 unemployed workers per 100 job openings. In August 2003, 20 months after the mild 2001 recession was over, there were 279 unemployed workers per 100 job openings. We have never seen employment recover so quickly after a recession.
And the ratio hasn’t simply recovered. It has actually improved. In February 2020, right before the pandemic, there were 82 unemployed workers per 100 job openings. That’s still more jobs than people to fill them, but the U.S. passed that level in July of last year and the decline has continued.
Politicians still want to talk about “job creation” because it’s all they have known for the past few decades. But we don’t need more jobs. We need more workers.