Labor Dept: Higher number of workers being fired than hired

A new Department of Labor survey is providing less than stellar news for those in debt collection looking for a job, as U.S. employers are ridding themselves of more employees than they’re hiring and sending jobless workers into the hardest job market in years.

The survey, which measured job openings and labor turnover for the month of August, found that a sizable disparity had become apparent when looking at employment numbers dating back to August 2008. While the data showed that there had been 50.9 million hires over the 12-month period, the total number of job "separations" was significantly higher at 56.1 million.

While the amount of job hires remained relatively stable, dropping from 4.2 million in July to 4 million in August, it also represented a decline of 1.6 million – or 28 percent – since its peak numbers seen back in July 2006.

The same could be said for the number of job openings, which at 2.4 million remained the same from July’s figures. However, the number of openings has dropped by 2.4 million – or 50 percent – from its peak numbers recorded in June 2007.

The Labor Department also found that while there had only been an average of 1.72 unemployed people for every job opening in December 2007, that number had skyrocketed to 6.05 persons per application in July.