4 Million Openings: Too Many Employers Await 'Ideal Candidate'

It won't be news to many that the optimism in the economy -- more spending, more investing, rising housing prices, and a soaring stock market -- hasn't trickled down to the unemployed. While companies are posting more vacancies, they're not hiring to fill them all. In fact, employers are taking much longer to hire than when the financial crisis hit.

"Employers are hiring and they don't have their pick of the litter anymore ... but they're still looking for the ideal candidate," explains Jason Faberman, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, who analyzed Labor Department data with economists Steve Davis and John Haltiwanger.