If the U.S. is not at full employment, we are surely close to it. So says Steven J. Davis, a business and economics professor at the University of Chicago and the cocreator of tools measuring labor-market tightness for data provider DHI Group. In recent months the U.S. unemployment rate has hovered at lows last seen before the Great Recession. The percentage of jobs waiting to be filled, meanwhile, is close to eight-year highs. DHI data shows that the time it takes to fill open positions has been on the rise in most industries, suggesting increased competition for top-flight workers. For employers, that means upward pressure on wages.
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A version of this article appears in the April 1, 2017 issue of Fortune with the headline “It’s Getting Harder To Hire.”
