Jobs Get Posted, Few Get Filled

From today's WSJ.com:

...Now the recovery appears to be faltering again, giving companies even less incentive to hire. That could spell further trouble for job growth in months ahead, especially if companies go back to slashing payrolls.

There are signs this already is happening. Private employers laid off 71,000 more workers in April than the month before. New claims for jobless benefits, which had been falling steadily since last fall, have trended upward in recent weeks.... the four-week moving average, which smooths out weekly volatility, reached its highest level last week since December.

Such a relatively modest uptick in layoffs wouldn't matter much if healthy companies were stepping up the pace at which they were adding jobs. But the recovery's repeated starts and stops have left even growing companies nervous about hiring too quickly—a caution that has only increased as Europe's debt crisis has raised the risk of a new global slowdown....

The collapse of the labor market in 2008 and 2009 stemmed from both a plunge in hiring and a surge in layoffs. Before the recession, private companies generally hired close to five million workers a month, a figure that dropped as low as 3.4 million in the depths of the recession. Monthly layoffs and firings, meanwhile, rose from about 1.7 million to a peak of nearly 2.5 million in early 2009....

There are signs of hope for the unemployed. Job openings have been steadily rising since the recession ended, though openings fell slightly in April. Historically, vacant positions have translated into increased hiring in the coming months.

So far, however, that hasn't happened. Many companies say they are filling positions slowly in part because they can't find the workers they need....

But many experts say that companies' complaints mask the real issue: They are in no hurry to hire when the economy is on such shaky ground. A recent study by Mr. Faberman and a Chicago Fed colleague found that a mismatch between workers' skills and employers' needs played a relatively small role in explaining the slow rate of hiring. Meanwhile, a separate measure of "recruiting intensity"—how hard companies are trying to fill jobs—shows that even as companies have posted more jobs, they haven't stepped up their efforts to fill them....

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Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304441404577480771351072052.html