The Labor Department said Tuesday that job openings fell to 3.2 million in May from 3.3 million in the previous month. April's upwardly revised figure was the highest in 18 months.
The department's report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, illustrates how competitive the job market is. There were about 4.7 unemployed people, on average, for each job opening in May. That's down from the peak of 6.3 last November, but is much higher than the 1.8 unemployed per opening when the recession began in December 2007.
I just don't get the disconnect. I would have never thought there would be such inaction in response to 9.5%+ unemployment.