How The Economy Is Still Holding Back Job Market Recovery

By Alison Green

Depending on who you ask, the U.S. economy might or might not be on an upswing. But talk to job seekers, and it's clear that any recovery still hasn't been fully reflected in the job market. Job seekers continue to find a much harder market than they did before the financial crash of 2008.

Here are eight ways that the economy is still making things tough on workers looking for a new job.

1. There are still often hundreds of applicants for a single opening. With nearly three times as many job seekers as there are job openings, employers are often overwhelmed by the response for even low-paying jobs. The good news in that sentence? In 2009, that number was six job seekers for every job opening.

2. Employers are a lot pickier about who they hire. Because employers have so many qualified candidates to choose from, simply meeting the job qualifications isn't nearly enough these days. That also means that it's much harder for less perfectly qualified candidates to stretch up to a job that in previous years they might have been able to get more easily. Relatedly...