The number of job openings per unemployed person in the United States edged up slightly in May, as job openings unexpectedly climbed to the highest level since November 2024. That doesn't change the fact that the U.S. labor market remains broadly in balance, however, as the ratio of job openings and unemployed persons has come down significantly from its 2022 highs. According to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), 7.77 million positions remained unfilled on the last business day of May, which is only marginally higher than the 7.24 million unemployed in the country.
This means there were roughly 1.07 unfilled positions for every job seeker, clearly showing that the imbalance between labor demand and supply, identified by the Fed as one of the factors that drove inflation in 2022 and 2023, has largely disappeared. Before the pandemic hit in March 2020, there had been 1.2 job openings per unemployed person in an already tight labor market. That indicator then crashed to 0.2 by April 2020 amid mass layoffs in sectors affected by Covid restrictions before climbing as high as 2.02 job openings per unemployed person in March 2022, at the height of the "Great Resignation".
During the inflation crisis, Fed chairman Jerome Powell repeatedly stressed that the labor market needed to balance out to relieve upward pressure on wages and thus cool inflation. In recent meetings, he too acknowledged that balance had been restored and that labor market conditions were currently unlikely to be a source of inflationary pressures.
After the sharp rebound from the pandemic, when businesses rapidly rehired, and demand for workers exceeded supply by unprecedented margins, the U.S. labor market has gradually cooled. Job growth, which averaged several hundred thousand new positions per month between 2021 and 2023 and around 170,000 added jobs per month in 2024, has nearly come to a standstill as the economy adjusts to tepid consumer spending, tighter financial conditions, and a high degree of macroeconomic uncertainty.
Faced with tariff uncertainty and persistent recession fears, employers have become increasingly cautious about adding staff. Although unemployment remains relatively low, it has gradually crept upward over the past two years, reaching the highest rate since October 2021 in August. Following a steep downward revision of employment gains in May and June, job growth has nearly dried up halfway through 2025, with the three-month moving average of job additions falling from 232,000 in January to just 29,000 in August.
At his speech in Jackson Hole last month, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell stated that the labor market was still broadly in balance, although he admitted it was "a curious kind of balance, resulting from a simultaneous drop-off in labor demand and supply. Despite this balance, Powell found that the risks in the labor market were skewed to the downside, clearing the way for a rate cut in September.
Imagine getting home from your nine-to-five job to have dinner with your family, maybe read a bedtime story, and put your kids to bed. But instead of winding down on the couch afterwards, you get ready and start your second workday. That’s the daily reality for millions of Americans, for whom one job is no longer enough to pay rent, put food on the table, and cover other expenses.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 9.3 million Americans reported working multiple jobs in November 2025 – the highest number ever recorded since the BLS started tracking multiple jobholders in 1994. In relative terms, 5.7 percent of employed Americans worked more than one job last month, which is also the highest share in 25 years. Only in the mid-1990s, when the workforce was considerably smaller than it is today, was the share of multiple jobholders higher, peaking at 6.5 percent in November 1996. But whereas in 1996, around two-thirds of multiple jobholders were not college-educated and presumably worked in low-wage occupations, half of those working more than one job now do hold a college degree, indicating that even an advanced degree no longer guarantees a job that pays well enough to make ends meet.
There are several reasons behind this trend, the most important one being economic necessity: several years of elevated inflation have left a legacy of high prices while wages have barely kept up. Housing costs, for example, have risen 28 percent over the past five years, while wages have only increased 24 percent. That leaves many families financially strained, especially as the prices of other necessities, food in particular, have also outpaced wage growth.
Another reason for the rise in multiple jobholders is the changing labor market: for one, the rise of remote jobs has made it easier for many people to work a second job, possibly from home. Then there’s the availability of jobs in general: for large parts of the past few years, the number of job openings has vastly exceeded the number of job seekers, leaving workers willing to earn an extra paycheck with plenty of options. And finally, the gig economy has created new opportunities for people to complement their income, offering flexible work schedules and relative freedom. As our chart shows, most multiple jobholders have one full-time and one part-time job, while two full-time jobs are the rarest form of multiple employment.