How do they calculate Jobs Available?

The Department of Labor has this report that tells you the number of jobs available each month. They claim that there were 3.4 million jobs available in Decmeber 2011. Since the majority of the jobs are suppose to be coming from Networking how do they come up with this? If it is all the jobs they found on various job sites across the nation, they are counting all the fake jobs that take up 95% of the job sites. They claimed that it was over 4 million at the start of this recession and as low as 2.4 million on summer of 2009. This is a PDF file so you will need Adobe software to open it. It is free to download if you need it at their site.

www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/jolts.pdf

All of that stuff is fudged. And now that we're in an election year, it's probably even more so.

If they are counting jobs posted by recruiting agencies...forget about it entirely.

Katrina in Park Ridge, Illinois said: The Department of Labor has this report that tells you the number of jobs available each month. They claim that there were 3.4 million jobs available in Decmeber 2011. Since the majority of the jobs are suppose to be coming from Networking how do they come up with this? If it is all the jobs they found on various job sites across the nation, they are counting all the fake jobs that take up 95% of the job sites. They claimed that it was over 4 million at the start of this recession and as low as 2.4 million on summer of 2009. .

www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/jolts.pdf

The numbers come from private companies as part of their government compliance reporting. The problem is that companies often hedge their bets and inflate their current and future hiring needs just to keep the government off their backs.

If a company runs an ad four times in a year, it's not because they have four jobs. Its often still just one job but by massaging the "boxes", it looks like there are four openings.

If you have ever filled out that bit where it asks you if you are a one-legged, Native American who is also a vet, that is part of it. This is compliance reporting.

Take those BLS statistics with a grain of salt. They are overstated. The UE rate is often understated since they use U3. U6 is probably closer to the truth.

And yes, this is an election year.

Katrina in Park Ridge, Illinois said: The Department of Labor has this report that tells you the number of jobs available each month. They claim that there were 3.4 million jobs available in Decmeber 2011. Since the majority of the jobs are suppose to be coming from Networking how do they come up with this? If it is all the jobs they found on various job sites across the nation, they are counting all the fake jobs that take up 95% of the job sites. They claimed that it was over 4 million at the start of this recession and as low as 2.4 million on summer of 2009. This is a PDF file so you will need Adobe software to open it. It is free to download if you need it at their site.

www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/jolts.pdf

As to the networking thing, a company can have a "preferred candidate" but they will run the ad anyway to in order to comply with EEOC regs.

When I got this job, it was never posted. I knew someone who knew someone.

Its fuzzy math when the unemployment number is released.

It hurts the stock market when bad unemployment number are made public and it's an election year. Our economy would go into crisis mode if the real unemployment number was released around 20% out of work.

Beth in Dallas, TX said: Its fuzzy math when the unemployment number is released.

It hurts the stock market when bad unemployment number are made public and it's an election year. Our economy would go into crisis mode if the real unemployment number was released around 20% out of work.

As my old statistic's professor once said, "You can come up with any conclusion you want, if you choose the "right" input data".

BLS=Bull****Labor Statistics