Unemployment Creates Opportunities For Skilled Workers

In the newsletter The Howe & Hutton
Report, the law firm found that as the total number and percentage of unemployed climbs week after week, another key employment number is frequently overlooked, the number of job openings which employers have not been able to fill for a variety of reasons. According to a recent federal employment survey, there are approximately three million jobs going begging.

The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report indicates 2.2% of all jobs, about three million at present, are unfilled. These openings represent skills lacking, people who cannot or will not move to a different locale for a job, jobs deemed too low in pay (from primary care doctors to agricultural labor), and an unwillingness to train for a different job offering lower pay or benefits to people starting over.

This trend is not new even in a recession. Job growth usually lags any recovery. But many of the jobs lost in the latest unemployment cycle will not come back, for example in the auto industry where plants are closing right and left.