WASHINGTON — Employers advertised fewer jobs in August than the previous month. Some may have pulled back on hiring plans in the face of wild stock market swings and renewed recession fears.
Companies and governments had 3.1 million job openings in August, down from 3.2 million in July, the Labor Department said Wednesday.
The drop was the first in four months, but July’s openings were the highest in nearly three years.
Still, there’s heavy competition for each job. Nearly 14 million people were out of work in August, which means an average of 4.6 unemployed workers competed for each opening. That’s worse than July, when the ratio was 4.3. In a healthy economy, the ratio is roughly 2-to-1.
Total openings are well above the 2.1 million available in July 2009, which was one month after the recession officially ended. But they are far below the 4.4 million jobs advertised in December 2007, when the recession began.
The downshift in job postings partly reflects the increasing ability of companies to quickly adjust their hiring plans if the economy sours.
“As soon as companies hear talk of a ‘soft patch,’ they hit the pause button on hiring,” said Jeff Joerres, chief executive of ManpowerGroup, the world’s largest staffing agency.
Such caution also means employers are filling jobs more slowly. In the past year, openings have risen 6.8 percent, while actual hiring has increased only 3.3 percent.
“The heightened financial and economic uncertainty may lead businesses to downsize their original hiring intentions and hold off on hiring,” said Henry Mo, an economist at Credit Suisse, in a note to clients.
Employers also are getting pickier, economists say, and are holding out for better-qualified candidates. And they may not be offering enough pay to prospective employees.
Some companies in high- skill industries, such as information technology and advanced manufacturing, say they are having trouble finding qualified candidates.
