Ohio has twice as many as jobs as unemployed job-seekers in tight labor market

Ohio had 389,000 job openings in April, which was an increase of 29,000 from March, according to seasonally adjusted data released late last month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The ratio of unemployed people to job openings in the state was 0.5, which was only the fifth time that’s happened since late 2000 — as far back as the bureau’s data goes.

Ohio also had two job openings for every unemployed worker in April, May, June and July of 2022.

A ratio of 1.0 means there is a job available for every unemployed person, while ratios less than 1.0 signal a tighter labor market in which firms have more job openings than there are people looking for work, the bureau said.

In the last 23 years, the “job-seekers ratio” in Ohio peaked at 8.8 in August 2009 after the Great Recession, meaning there were nearly nine unemployed people for every job opening.

During the slow recovery from recession, Ohio didn’t have enough jobs for all the people looking for employment, said Michael Shields, senior researcher with Policy Matters Ohio, a liberal-leaning research organization. But the job market improved.

Between January 2013 and February 2020, when the pandemic hit, the ratio of unemployed Ohioans to job openings ranged from 0.8 to 3, and there were 1 or more unemployed workers for every job opening in about 70 out of 86 months during that time frame.

COVID led to a huge number of job losses and big changes in the job market and labor force.

The region and state have recovered most or all of the job losses, and the state’s job-seekers ratio has been 0.9 or lower since June 2021.

Shields said ideally over the long-term there would be one job opening for every unemployed job-seeker.

But he said wages have not increased as much as they should have, especially considering productivity growth, and these are good labor market conditions for workers to seek out and push for higher pay.

Locally, there are signs that the supply of job openings well surpasses the number of job-seekers.

In May, there were about 13,400 unemployed people in the Dayton metro area searching for work, according to not seasonally adjusted data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The metro area consists of Montgomery, Miami and Greene counties.

Between mid-April and mid-May, there were about 13,200 job openings posted online at OhioMeansJobs for those three counties.

And that’s just positions posted on OhioMeansJobs — not every job opening is listed on the state’s free online career and employment center.

Given so many job openings, employers are focused on recruitment and retention, and this is also a good environment for workers who want pursue career changes or switch jobs, said Teets, with Job and Family Services.