More Job Openings--But Not More Jobs.

   The Associated Press just ran an article which says that Americans employers are now posting more job openings than at anytime in the last three years.  But the article goes on to point out that more "job openings" do not necessarily mean more jobs.  And they cite specific industries where jobs have declined while posted job openings have increased.  How could there be more job postings and fewer jobs?   There was an article in Wall Street Journal last year which explains what is happening.   Many employers continue to run "help wanted" ads when they have no immediate plans to hire anyone.   They do this mainly because they know that someday the economy will switch from being a slack job market to a tight job market---to a market where they will need to add new workers quickly but will have trouble finding them.  And this change could happen overnight.  So they collect a huge file of resumes and continually update it.  Also, having a "help wanted" sign on the front door helps convey the illusion that the firm is healthy and expanding rapidly, when it may actually be on the verge of bankruptcy.
    But doesn't interviewing all those job seekers consume the time of their present employees?   Well, they don't actually interview them.  They just sit them down at a computer terminal and have them enter massive amounts of personal information into the company's proprietary data base. This costs them nothing.  Yet millions of desperate unemployed people spend their last few dollars jumping through hoops to apply for non-existent jobs.
  And what happens to these massive data bases which now contain personal data on thousands of people?   No one has mentioned this yet, but it occurs to me that some of these companies are probably selling this information.