The hiring rate (defined as the number of new job hires per 100 employed people) continues to fall past its lowest recorded levels. Here's a graph for that, from May 2009.
Now let's take a look at firings over the same period. As David Leonhardt pointed out, firings have been rotten, but not so much more rotten than the 2001 recession. Here's a graph for that.
Finally,
Catherine kindly compares job openings to unemployed workers. The
calculations are admittedly imprecise, since these figures are coming
from two separate estimates, but it's an important approximation
because it gives us a sense of how competitive the scene has become for
people looking to get back into the job market.
Today
there are 5.7 unemployed workers for every nonfarm job opening, she
notes. That's more than twice the high from the 2001 recession, even
though, let's remember, the rate of firings these days is not markedly
higher.
