Despite the fact that the recent Labor Department report has managed to reveal a significant fall in the rate of unemployment across America, employers are still cautious and not looking to hire more workers as of now, making it difficult for the next important step in the job market recovery to be taken.

Under the circumstances, competition for the openings that are actually available has become even fiercer. As per figures shared by the Labor Department data released Tuesday, in October, there were an average 6.3 employed professionals for each job opening, which is an increase from the 6.1 figure recorded for September. Also, October's number has been a substantial rise as compared to the December 2007 figure of 1.7 suitors per job opening.

"Given the large number of job seekers per job opening, it is unsurprising that the jobless are getting stuck in unemployment for long periods and that the labor market is seeing record rates of long-term unemployment", said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

As confirmed by official figures revealed by the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, a total of 2.5 million jobs were posted for the month of October, which is a slight fall from the 2.5 million jobs posted in September.

For the current year, the fall in jobs posted has been very sharp, but has still managed to remain within the 2.5 million ranges since the month of April.