Total number of unemployed people divided by the total number of non-farm job openings.
Ratios are calculated by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality (CPI), using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of unemployed people is from the Current Population Survey, and the number of nonfarm job openings is from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.
People are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior four weeks, and are currently available for work. Persons who are not working and are waiting to be recalled to a job from which they have been temporarily laid off are also counted as unemployed.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the total number of non-farm job openings each month using the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, which is a monthly survey of U.S. business establishments. The number of job openings is reported for the last business day of the month. Annual averages are calculated by CPI.