Construction Unemployment vs. Job Openings peaked at 70-to-1 during recession winter in 2008

The recession was incredibly tough on construction workers.  At one point during the recession the number of unemployed construction workers was 70 times greater than the number of openings.  It was impossible to find a construction job.

I was looking at another great report from Hiedi Sheirholz at the Economic Policy Insititute here. The article called, "Unemployed workers still far outnumber the job openings in every major sector," discusses the limited number of job openings in many fields.

While the economic environment has improved, we can look back at how tough it was during the recession. And how tough it still is.  The nation has a huge job shortage.

The chart below is the ratio of unemployed construction workers to the number of open construction jobs.