2.9 unemployed persons for each job opening (Sept. data)

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epi is Economic Policy Institute, which I think is generally regarded as liberal think tank.  Well, I'm liberal, too.  And they include a clickable link to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Plus, if you go to google news and do a search for [ 2.9 unemployed ], you'll find a number of news articles on this topic.

Okay, from a personal action point of view, it means job hunting is as much a numbers game as ever.

And from a societal justice point of view, well, there's a lot of topics we can discuss and lay on the table.  I personally think the way to go about job creation is through a number of small and medium courses of action.

2.9 people for every 1 job opening?

[opinion=mine]

Maybe at MacDonald's! I dare to say that it's more like 2.9 qualified people for every 10 or more job openings, on the average.

[/opinion]

For instance, out of about 100 applicants for one technical opening, it was recently found that only 3 of them met all of the job-related qualifications after screening for education, experience, drug use and driving record. This is from an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) that does not base hiring or promotion on Age (18+), Disability, Genetic Information, National Origin, Pregnancy, Race/Color, Religion, Sex (M/F), Pregnancy or Gender Preference (LGBT-Q) -- again, provided that the candidate or employee meets all of the job-related requirements.

Link: Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices

Now, I would ask, what kind of technical opening is it if one of the things they're looking at is also driving record ? ?

And it does make sense to me that the more specific the requirements, the less qualified applicants there will be. But this same article says this is less of an effect than we might think.

One that involves something called "Transportation Technology", where the installations are separated by many miles of open road; and when getting to any of the installations requires driving a company-owned vehicle.

Thus, 6 points or one DUI on your driving record can disqualify you for employment, mainly due to liability issues.

Well, if one is going to drive a big rig, or a company owned van between cities, the company should expect that the person they hire have a clean driving record and does not do drugs. I think the problem may be partially due to a surplus of marginally qualified candidates for ALL jobs, people, especially young people, who go into an interview having just come from a pool party and are still wet and smelling of chlorine (true story), or who come to an interview smelling of weed and stoned, or who have tons of piercings and tattoos. People who can't write a resume, or who can't write without spell/grammar check, and who are applying for secretarial work. People with huge egos and little skills.