Seattle slowly rising in job market competition index

Sometimes when the daily grind of a job search gets you down, it's comforting to take some of Garrison Keillor's Lutheran advice from "A Prairie Home Companion" and realize that, no matter how many times you've been rejected by a hiring manager, "it could be worse." You could be living in Detroit, for instance.

The Lake Wobegon mantra came to mind when I saw Indeed.com release the latest figures earlier this month for its Job Market Competition index, a monthly listing of the 50 largest U.S. cities ranked by the ratio of job openings to job seekers. Using figures from August, the most recent data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the index shows that the Seattle metropolitan area (Seattle-Bellevue-Everett) is ranked No. 9, with a ratio of 1:3, or one job for every three job seekers.

This may look like terrible news to roughly 67 percent of local residents who are looking for work that simply isn't there. But the Puget Sound region is a veritable worker's paradise compared to such blighted areas as Riverside, Calif. (1:9 ratio), Miami, Fla. (1:11) and the aforementioned Detroit (1:17), which represent the bottom three markets on the Job Competition index.

Seattle shares a 1:3 ratio with Austin, Texas; San Francisco; Denver; San Antonio, Texas; and New Orleans, which occupy the Nos. 10 to 14 spots, respectively. Topping the list is Washington, D.C., followed closely by its neighbor, Baltimore, Md., both with stellar 1:1 ratios. Rounding out the rest of the top spots--all with 1:2 ratios--are Salt Lake City; San Jose, Calif.; New York City; Oklahoma City; Boston; and Hartford, Conn.

The index, which has been in existence for three months, has shown mixed, but generally positive, results for the Seattle area. After debuting at No. 8 on the list, Seattle dropped to No. 13 for the June update and rose to No. 11 for July. The latest figures for August represent a jump of two spots up the list.

Interestingly, while Seattle's 1:3 job-to-job-seeker ratio has remained unchanged since the index was created, Hillary O'Keefe, a marketing associate for Indeed.com, says the region is still comparatively healthy. "Although the ratios don't appear to have changed, Seattle's overall ranking compared to the other cities is showing improvement month to month," she says. The area's IT, retail, biotech and military sectors, she says, are also helping to provide more positions while other areas continue to face worsening markets.

Another Indeed.com graphic also ranks the same 50 cities based on the number of job postings per capita for each region, according to the website's quarterly data. For the second quarter of 2009, the District of Columbia and Baltimore again took the two top spots, with 133 listings and 90 listings per 1,000 people, respectively. However, Seattle had an impressive showing at No. 6 on the list, with 54 listings per 1,000 residents. In the previous quarter, Seattle was only listed at No. 9.

At the time of this posting, Indeed.com was showing nearly 34,000 jobs listed within 25 miles of Seattle. The top companies included Microsoft (1,977 listings), Amazon.com (910) and the University of Washington (870). Not surprisingly, health-care opportunities dominated. The most popular titles were Physical Therapist (202 positions), Medical Assistant (117) and Occupational Therapist (93).

Bringing up the rear once again in the per-capita list? You guessed it: Detroit, with just 15 postings for every 1,000 residents. And now they don't even get to cheer for their beloved Tigers in baseball's post-season. Could be a lot worse, indeed.

Writer and editor Randy Woods has filled out more job applications than he can count -- so you don't have to. Email him at hireground@nwjobs.com.