Millions of job openings, so why aren’t companies hiring?

Yahoo Finance ^ | 9-4-2014

[Citizen Zed]

Even though there were 4.7 million jobs openings in June, the most since 2001, employers are waiting longer to fill them than they have in more than a decade, according to an index created by University of Chicago economist Steven Davis.

It's taking 25 working days on average to fill vacancies, a 13-year high, according to the Dice-DFH Vacancy Duration Measure. And for companies with 5,000 employees or more, it's taking more than twice that long -- an average of 58.1 working days.

In the accompanying video, Davis points to a few key reasons that could explain why. "The economy remains pretty sluggish, so employers don't feel desparate," he tells us. And second, he points to "anecdotal evidence that employers are relying on social media [e.g. LinkedIn] and job banks to identify attractive candidates who are already employed and not actively looking, so that makes for a longer courtship process ... hence it takes longer to fill the job openings they have."

[jiggyboy]

Those stories are usually complete BS. I remember maybe two years ago the claims of those companies boo-hoo-ing on Good Morning America or maybe even Rush Linbaugh was fact-checked here at FR and found to be a lie from one end to the other.

[bestintxas]

I work for an energy company.

High paying job openings all the time, but my company cannot find Americans to fill them due to lack of skills.

We hire 2/3 of the professionals from other countries.

[caww]

...”High paying job openings all the time, but my company cannot find Americans to fill them due to lack of skills....
We hire 2/3 of the professionals from other countries”....

That doesn’t surprise me in the least really. I know that with the Marcelous Shale in my state they were going through the various Career Centers to find people and with offers for training, but had difficulty finding people who could even be instructed. They lacked even the basic understandings one would acquire from high school....or had drug or alcohol issues.

But some have done well...one fellow started at just $12 an hour driving a water truck....no experience....within one year he was making $25 an hour with plans to go further up in the ranks....he’s doing it too the last I heard....and that was four years ago.