As of —, there were — thousand job openings and — thousand unemployed people, or — openings per unemployed person. That's — thousand more openings than people looking for work. That's — thousand more people looking for work than openings.
Job openings
— vs. —
Unemployed
— vs. —
Gap (openings − unemployed)
— vs. —
Openings per unemployed person
— vs. —
Thousands; the axis doesn't start at zero. Where the job openings line sits above the unemployed line, there were more openings than people looking for work.
Thousands. Above zero means more openings than unemployed people; below zero means more unemployed people than openings.
What's behind the gap
Aging is the base drag: as baby boomers move past 65, a growing share of the population is retired, which steadily shrinks the labor supply. Immigration is the swing factor that changed in 2025, when the foreign-born workforce began to shrink after years of supplying most labor force growth. The 2021–23 shortage was a separate pandemic event, driven mostly by early retirements.
Sources: Axios / Employ America · Brookings · St. Louis Fed · Fortune on Fed research
Thousands. Blank cells are months where a figure isn't in the data yet.
| Month | Job openings | Unemployed | Gap | Openings per unemployed |
|---|