It's hardly a jolt to say it's not a good time to be jobless and job hunting.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey -- JOLTS --finds 3.1 million job openings for more than 10 million jobless job seekers.
At the beginning of this (now official) recession, there were 1.9 job hunters per job opening. That ratio jumped to 3.3 in October.
Labor market economists don't expect improvement any time soon.
Unemployment jumped by about 250,000 in November. And in the first week of December, new claims for unemployment benefits skyrocketed by more than half a million.
No wonder there's a sharp rise in job loss/job transition support groups in the metro area. The need for advice and camaraderie is great.
Click on the area job list (under "Resources," under my photo to the left) to see where and when these groups meet.
If we have a bigger piece of the pie in the USA why are we giving it to people who do not like us? Fair question.
Ken Stepp