Posted on 08/06/2023 9:32:54 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
In the United States, there were about 75 workers available for every 100 job openings as of July 2023. This means there is a significant gap between labor and jobs available, but also many opportunities present in some states for potential job seekers.
In the map below, using data from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Visual Capitalist's Avery Koop and Bhabna Banerjee showcase the number of available workers per 100 job openings in each U.S. state.
Note: Available workers are unemployed workers who are in the labor force but do not have a job, have looked for one in the previous four weeks, and are currently able and available to work. Job openings are simply all unfulfilled positions that offer available work.
The below table lists out the number of unemployed workers per 100 jobs in every state.
Higher ratios, such as 110 workers per 100 job openings, mean there is more competition for each job opening in that state. Lower ratios suggest that it is harder to find workers in a given state.
| Rank | State | Available Workers per 100 Job Openings |
|---|---|---|
| #T1 | California | 110.0 |
| #T1 | New York | 110.0 |
| #3 | New Jersey | 108.0 |
| #4 | Connecticut | 102.0 |
| #5 | Washington | 101.0 |
| #6 | Nevada | 98.0 |
| #7 | Texas | 89.0 |
| #8 | Pennsylvania | 88.0 |
| #9 | Michigan | 85.0 |
| #10 | Hawaii | 79.0 |
| #11 | Oregon | 77.0 |
| #12 | Arizona | 76.0 |
| #13 | Illinois | 75.0 |
| #T14 | Indiana | 74.0 |
| #T14 | Rhode Island | 74.0 |
| #16 | Delaware | 72.0 |
| #17 | Kentucky | 66.0 |
| #18 | Ohio | 65.0 |
| #T19 | Alaska | 63.0 |
| #T19 | New Mexico | 63.0 |
| #21 | Wyoming | 61.0 |
| #22 | Louisiana | 60.0 |
| #T23 | Florida | 59.0 |
| #T23 | Kansas | 59.0 |
| #T25 | Missouri | 58.0 |
| #T25 | West Virginia | 58.0 |
| #T27 | Georgia | 57.0 |
| #T27 | Iowa | 57.0 |
| #T29 | Idaho | 56.0 |
| #T29 | Tennessee | 56.0 |
| #T31 | District of Columbia | 55.0 |
| #T31 | Mississippi | 55.0 |
| #T31 | North Carolina | 55.0 |
| #T34 | Colorado | 54.0 |
| #T34 | Minnesota | 54.0 |
| #36 | South Carolina | 53.0 |
| #37 | Wisconsin | 52.0 |
| #38 | Virginia | 51.0 |
| #T39 | Maine | 50.0 |
| #T39 | Oklahoma | 50.0 |
| #41 | Utah | 48.0 |
| #42 | Montana | 46.0 |
| #43 | Alabama | 45.0 |
| #T44 | Arkansas | 44.0 |
| #T44 | Massachusetts | 44.0 |
| #T44 | Vermont | 44.0 |
| #47 | New Hampshire | 41.0 |
| #48 | Maryland | 40.0 |
| #49 | Nebraska | 40.0 |
| #50 | North Dakota | 35.0 |
| #51 | South Dakota | 35.0 |
| U.S. Total | 75.0 |
While states like New Jersey and California have more workers that they know what to do with, states like North Dakota have a 0.35 ratio of people to jobs, potentially tipping the balance of power to job seekers.
Over the last three years, job openings have increased the most in the state of Georgia, where there were only 0.57 people available for every open role in July. But despite growth in open positions, unemployment has hardly changed over the last year, wavering around 3%.
“If every unemployed person in the country found a job, we would still have 4 million open jobs.”
- U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the main driver of the current labor shortage was the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing more than 100,000 businesses to close temporarily and resulting in millions losing their jobs.
Subsequent government support for those who lost work and other subsidies made it easier for people to stay home and out of the workforce. A Chamber of Commerce survey found that 1-in-5 people have changed their work style since the pandemic, with 17% having retired, 19% having transitioned to a homemaker role, and another 14% working only part time.
The industries with the highest unemployment rates are also those that have added the most jobs, with leisure and hospitality experiencing the highest rates (5.1%) just ahead of wholesale and retail trade (4.4%).
Overall, though the job marker has started to cool somewhat, hiring is still outpacing quit rates. The national quit rate in July 2023 was 3.8%, compared to a hiring rate of 4%. And with 9.8 million job openings in the U.S., there should be ample opportunities for job seekers.
But the COVID pandemic was a couple years ago.
The statistics, are not very accurate, or they need to be filtered by type of job. I know on the job boards were they give counts always literally hundreds even thousands of people signing up for the same jobs.
There must be a better way than a job board with hundreds of applicants. My son-in-law keeps running into things like that. As a recent college grad with a computer engineering degree but no experience, he can’t seem to break through to people who really want to hire a beginner guy at a beginner salary. He’s keeping body and soul together right now by working as a security guard. I think job hunting is a truly awful undertaking.
BTTT
Honestly I’m calling BS. The government is still paying far too many healthy and capable people to stay home and not work. So, people being what they are, stay home and don’t work. They get dropped from the unemployed rolls, making this a skewed statistic.
Imagine what it was like 45 years ago without the Internet. I subscribed to the Wall Street Journal “Careers” supplement which came out every week and landed a great job that way. I went to the library frequently to peruse the Help Wanted sections from the major newspapers around the country. I was a mechanical engineer with five years experience starting power plants. It was a real challenge to connect to the job market, especially without any sort of a personal network. You talk about isolated!
I was pounding out every single letter from scratch on an old Smith Corona portable electric typewriter that I had used in college seven years earlier. I used carbon paper to make copies. I used manila folders to keep track of who I had contacted and when.
You wrote “I think job hunting is a truly awful undertaking.” — I tell you, it’s a piece of cake today compared to the old days.
Write a generic cover letter, apply to everything, hundreds, daily even. Focus on US companies and American recruiters. Indian recruiters are total waste of time and are simply going through motions and then placing Indians and H1B. I do consulting—any contract W2 or C2C, any length, focus on remote. Apply everywhere, do periodic follow-up with anyone that responds. As they say, it is a full time job to look for work.
Yes, three are HUGE differences in industries as well as type of position in this industries. Some states rely heavily on tourism. Others on energy. Others on finance. Others on tech.
In places like California, the glut of workers is probably due to poorly educated, poorly experienced workers. In poorer states, the shortage of workers is because the jobs don’t pay much.
It’s very hard to make meaningful generalities like this article is attempting to do.
Good advice, thanks.
When I returned home to Idaho, another co-worker was selected to cover my Linux sysadmin tasks inside the closed area. I couldn't do that remotely. That went well for a few months, but ultimately he and his wife took new positions in northern Virginia where salary and housing costs allowed them to buy a house...something that was impossible for them in San Diego. I had to remotely train a new sysadmin.
The last time I applied for a job was in 1980. Pacific Telephone. I had the credentials, but the CPUC had placed a hiring freeze on Pacific Telephone. I called weekly to get a status update and eventually the freeze was lifted and I was hired.
For my current job, I was recruited. An offer was delivered to my front door. That was November 1991. I started the current position on Dec 9, 1991. It's a big company with lots of specialties. Perform well. Network. Get recruited to the next contract. All internal.
It's a bit late in the Summer, but many companies have Summer internships. That is a great way to demonstrate your skills and network within a company. Often it leads to an offer of a paid position.
Thanks .
You also run into idiots in the HR departments. I remember reading an interview with an HR person of a large high tech company about 5 years ago.She said if she receives a resume from someone that has been out of work for more than 3 months, she just throws it in the trash without reading it. Her reasoning was if they couldn’t get hired within 3 months there must be something wrong with them.
In the computer field, the applicant has to approach it like it is combat against a huge genocidal machine.
Indian firms are trying to monopolize the entire IT industry, and their goal is to eliminate ALL US citizens, and force the employers to hire only Indians.
A few years ago, after 20 years of trying to do business with and around the Hindi insects, I started blocking their emails, and avoiding any application process wherein any Hindi accents or names popped up during the process. I started getting more results, and less dead ends.
Monster, Dice, and Linked-in are too saturated with them. Indeed is still an option, but the Hindis are beating it down as much as they can.
RedBalloon.work is another possibility, geared toward the non-woke, conservative businesses and workers, although newer and smaller.
I’m going to refer my son-in-law to redballoon.work . Thanks.
Thank God the southern border is open....
The start is always bad. HR says they want a beginner with 5 years experience.
I can only tell you 2 things
1. It gets better after 5 years working
2. Tell him to get a job anywhere as IT support, eden for a small company. It’s a start.
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