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More jobs, but competition remains fierce

The job market is getting better, but – as any jobseeker knows – there’s still plenty of competition out there for any open position.The government reported Wednesday that there were 3.1 million job openings in March, up slightly from the previous month. About 4 million people were hired in March, also a slight increase over the previous month. Still, the Economic Policy Institute reports t
Tony Dejak / AP / Today

The job market is getting better, but – as any jobseeker knows – there’s still plenty of competition out there for any open position.

The government reported Wednesday that there were 3.1 million job openings in March, up slightly from the previous month. About 4 million people were hired in March, also a slight increase over the previous month.

 Still, the Economic Policy Institute reports that there continues to be more than four jobseekers for every job opening.

For unemployed people, those are a lot better odds than back in July of 2009, where there were nearly 7 unemployed people for every job opening, according to EPI's calculations. But it’s still a far cry from the good old days. In December of 2000, the EPI notes, there was pretty much a job available for everyone who was looking for one. 

There was another promising piece of news in the government report: Yet again in March, more people quit their jobs than were laid off.

EPI analyst Heidi Shierholz said noted that the likelihood of being laid off has declined dramatically since the height of the recession.

“Workers with a job today are no more likely to face a layoff than they were before the recession started — in fact, workers today are a little bit less likely to face a layoff than they were before the recession started,” she wrote in a brief released Wednesday.