U.S. News: Job Openings Remained Scant in May
Employers were less willing to hire in May and employees were more reluctant to quit, making it more difficult for the unemployed to find work, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.</br></br>There were about 5.7 unemployed workers for every job opening in May, up from about 5.5 a month earlier. As the growing number of job seekers meets the shrinking pool of openings means people are out of work longer, crimping consumer spending and shrinking government budgets.</br></br>"There are huge lines in front of the door of every job opening," said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington.</br></br>May data on job openings and labor turnover showed the drop in the rate of job openings at employers has started to flatten out. The report's silver lining was the latest in a string of indicators that show the U.S. economy may be nearing bottom.</br></br>There were 2.6 million job openings on the last day of May, about the same as a month earlier, but down from four million openings in May 2008. The seasonally adjusted job-openings rate was 1.9% in May, the same as in April and down from 2.8% in May 2008.