US States with the Lowest Job Competition

The following states and metro areas have job openings compared to job seekers in the ratio 1:1. This means that there is one job slot open for each currently registered unemployed person, who should be looking for work.

This does not mean, however, that the job seekers know how to do those jobs, can be easily trained for them, or even want to do them. This also does not mean that all unemployed workers are looking for jobs.

Number One:

• Texas - Especially Dallas and Fort Worth, and Greater Austin Area. To a lesser extent, this applies also to Houston and San Antonio. SpaceX began building its own spaceport near Brownsville in 2014.

Other Locations:

• Albuquerque & Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Boston, Massachusetts
• Greater Minneapolis Area - Minneapolis, St. Paul, Eden Prairie (Best City in America)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• Salt Lake City, Utah
• Washington DC
• West Palm Beach, Florida

Reference: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Summer 2013.

You can see in the chart below, that numbers of advertised jobs began increasing again in January 2014.

Top Five Job Titles Needing Workers

1. Customer Service Representatives
2. Truck Drivers -- Heavy and Tractor-Trailer. This category of work is expanding in many places around the country.
3. Retail Salespersons
4. Sales Representatives for Services
5. Supervisors and Managers of Retail Salespeople

Top Companies Hiring Additional Employees

1. Presbyterian Healthcare Services
2. Pizza Hut - Managers, crew, and drivers.
3. University of New Mexico
4. C.R. England - a well known trucking company.
5. Community Health Systems

At this writing, over 31,300 jobs are advertised for these two cities, which are 50 miles apart.

Many sales related workers are needed, but at least 500 doctors are needed and nearly as many nurses.

Holiday Season 2014 saw our nation's capital with nearly 219,000 jobs advertised during the first week of November. Many of these jobs are connected with government, defense, aerospace programs, and healthcare as well as Information technology.

Top Needs for Washington:

1. Software Engineers
2. Project Managers
3. Java Developers
4. Business Analysts
5. Program Managers
6. IT Systems Engineers
7. Administrative Assistants and similar
8. Managers and Assistant Managers
9. Physical Therapists
10. Salespeople

Over 9,000 physicians, nurse practitioners, medical assistants and related positions are needed.

Who's Hiring?

1. General Dynamics
2. Booz Allen Hamilton
3. Marriot Hotels
4. Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
5. Care.com
6. Oracle
7. BAE Systems
8. Lockheed Martin
9. National Security Agency
10. TAD PGS

US States suffering the highest rates of job competition are those that have four registered unemployed workers for every job advertised. Is your state on this list?

• California - Especially Los Angeles and State Capital, Sacramento; San Diego is a little less competitive. At the same time, Forbes recommends California cities high on its list of best places for jobs: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (Number 1); San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City (Number 2).
• New York, particularly in New York City - However, Forbes lists NYC as the 7th best place for jobs in America.
• Las Vegas, Nevada
• Miami & Fort Lauderdale, Florida

During the first week of November 2014; 41,000 job openings were advertised for Las Vegas. It's unemployment rate was 7.8% in August of that year, compared to 5.9% nationwide. However, from September 2008 through April 2014, unemployment stood at 8.0%, so it is slowly decreasing.

IN the 2010s, China showed greater interest in the city and its attractions, with the result that Chinese visitors increased significantly each year. A continuing trend of this nature will increase revenues and jobs in Las Vegas.

Many of the jobs listed in the city and larger metro area are with major hotel resort chains and require no education beyond high school. This includes especially MGM and Caesars, but over 10,000 healthcare jobs are also open, many requiring licensing. Truck drivers and truck driving students are needed in large numbers - over 3,000.

The need for care givers from live-in arrangements to "mother's helpers" spike yearly between December and March.

The State Workforce Department estimates that the job categories providing the largest numbers of jobs in Las Vegas through 2022 will be:

1. Food Service - Especially full-service dining, casual dining, and fast food.
2. Support Jobs in Administration and Office Employment
3. All types of Retail Sales jobs
4. Transportation and Material Moving
5. Health Practitioners and Technicians
6. Construction Trades
7. Protective Services
8. Managers - Various fields.
9. Building and room cleaners.
10. Cashiers & Information Attendants

The largest employers have been:

1. Valley Health System
2. Pizza Hut
3. UnitedHealth Group
4. Dell
5. McDonald's

Listing the most jobs during Autumn 2014 are:

1. MGM Resorts International
2. Caesars Entertainment
3. Valley Health System
4. Web Recruiter - Various positions.
5. Gettruckerjobs.com - Drivers and student drivers.