This balance means that labor market tightness continues nearly the same, at 101 job openings for every 100 unemployed persons. This persistent tightness "is indicative of ongoing struggles that employers continue to have in filling an adequate number of qualified positions."

The total number of job openings has been falling for almost three years, mainly because fewer new job openings are being created, CBS reported.

There were 347,000 new vacancies in the past quarter, 19,000 fewer than the quarter before.

The call for workers, however, is ever-present. By the end of the second quarter, 389,000 positions were still open nationwide.

The industry with the highest demand was business services, followed by healthcare and trade. Just those three filled over half the total number of vacancies.

Hospitality saw the biggest drop, of 3,000 job openings, to 26,000.

The world of health care, for example, was one of the few to add jobs, with 1,000 openings and a total of about 68,000 such offers.

Although fewer people are showing up in the unemployment line and there are a bit fewer job listings, the labor shortage is very much present.

Hiring managers in some of the most critical industries are still experiencing difficulty finding talent, driving some desired job candidates into competition for the same offer.


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