Peter Orszag recently wrote about the puzzling fact that, despite a 50 percent increase in the number of job openings over the past three years, actual hiring has gone up less than 5 percent. What could possibly explain this gap? In his Bloomberg View column,recently wrote about the puzzling fact that, despite a 50 percent increase in the number of job openings over the past three years, actual hiring has gone up less than 5 percent. What could possibly explain this gap?

The following graphic examines some of Orszag’s research and other statistics to try to get to the bottom of this mess.