The ratio of unemployed workers to open jobs hovered at a record low in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday morning in a sign of the economy’s strength.
There were 0.9 unemployed workers for every job vacancy listed in the month, a ratio the agency said was the lowest since it’s been keeping track and that hasn’t been recorded before this year.
It’s unusual for there to be more open jobs than job seekers. In comparison, there were more than six jobless workers for every vacancy during the worst of the recession in 2009.
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Tuesday’s data comes from the Bureau’s Job Openings and Labor Turnovery Survey, which provides details about gross hiring and firing.
The report showed total job openings declining from a record-high 7.3 million in August to 7 million in September, the third highest such mark. Hiring, too, remained near record levels at 5.7 million.
The survey is released on a one-month lag from the more widely watched monthly payroll jobs report, but investors and government officials value it for the detail it provides about the underlying “churn” in labor markets.
Septembers jobs report, meanwhile, showed job growth picking up and the unemployment rate holding near a 49-year low at 3.7 percent.
