many job postings, why is unemployment so low. (Tampa, Orlando: real estate, mortgage broker)

[cshellrun]

My husband and I live in Kentucky and we would like to move to the Tampa area. We have found so many job postings in that area, yet when I looked at unemployment rates there it seemed pretty bad. Any ideas why?

[Sgoldie]

I noticed the same thing. Twenty five pages of open jobs in Orlando whereas where I currently am you'd be lucky to find one job posted (and it's been that way for the past 20 yrs here). What I think you're seeing is that a lot of people became mortgage brokers and had various other related real estate jobs when the market was furious and those are the ones who are skewing the unemployment roles.

[nucat78]

Some of the larger job boards "harvest" jobs from other sources, so you might see a single position listed in many places making it look like there are more jobs open.

Sometimes employers leave postings up after they've been filled and it takes awhile for the postings to expire. And sometimes the job boards keep the postings listed to make it look like they have a higher volume than they actually do or are just slow in taking them down.

The last unemployement stat that I read said there are 6 people available for every open job posting. That leaves 5 out of 6 available out of work.

Sometimes companies have internal "ringers" in mind for a position, but HR policy dictates that they post the job publicly for 5-10 business days. That is what my former company did. If you get a sorry letter within a day or two of applying for a job, either you are terribly unqualified or the job has been (probably) already filled internally (or you applied way late compared to other candidates).

Such were my experiences as a hiring manager - take it with a grain of salt if you want...

[clairegoad]

The Greater Tampa Bay Region contains 4 million residents when including immediately adjacent urban and suburban counties to the official MSA.

Many other areas have smaller populations, fewer employers, and fewer job listings. Heck, the Greater Tampa Bay Region has more people than half the states.

Maybe that's why is seems that there are a lot of jobs... Just the sheer size of this area.

To add to NuCat78's list...

Some jobs are actually schools advertising for students,
Scams advertising for victims, and
Employers advertising to see what's out there.

I was surprised to see a medical practice advertising for an MD on Craigslist, then realized it might be one of the pain clinics that recently lost their MD. There was also an MD (in California?) who had his information misused by a potential "employer" who was committing Medicare fraud.

I've heard stories of companies who were getting info from the unemployed, then filing for loans, credit cards, etc. I don't know how successful that would be now, but the criminal creativity is limitless.

Be careful out there.

[nucat78]

Originally Posted by clairegoad

Some jobs are actually schools advertising for students,

Forgot that one - a buddy answered an ad for research grant administrator positions. They emailed him a list of "approved" schools where he could take courses to prepare for a career in RA. Pretty funny since he had 20 years experience...