Applicants to Job Opening Ratio

lmccoy

Just wanted to know if any of you may know where I can find statistics on the average number of applicants per one job opening. I've tried the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but have only found projected job openings and number of hires. The local department of labor advised they do not have these types of statistics. I have to give a speech to the senior class of a local high school on job searches and interviewing techniques. The guidance counselor has asked that I stress how many other applicants the student will be up against when applying for a job. Of course I have the statistics from my company, but I would like to have more of a national average.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Don D

I've given similar talks to groups, Imccoy, and will suggest something that I think was productive for me. I chose to ignore regional and national statistics, if they existed, as I felt they would be totally irrelevant to the local group. Instead, I talked to a sampling of companies in the community, those the student body would readily be familiar with. I managed to come up with guestimates representing the applicant flow and openings at each company, over time. I felt the presentation was more meaningful when I linked it with the types of opportunities they could expect to find at company A, B, C and D in this community and was able to give them an accurate representation of how many qualified candidates are surfaced on average for those positions. The thing I didn't do that I WOULD do next time, is get beforehand from the counselor a list of specific occupational areas that represented the career objectives of the students. That way I could have done an even better job of bringing them meaningful data. Something I always talk about now when I speak at job fairs are resumes and what employers expect from workers. I am amazed at the number of 'think tanks' out there nowadays who are telling our students how important a certain color of paper is for a resume and giving them inaccurate information about what employers like to see on resumes. I also think the kids benefit from being told the simple basics of what employers expect.