Stories Related to Plummeting Unemployment Rate Puts The Squeeze On Hiring

Edward McKersie has been warning his clients that times are changing. Employers have ruled the job market for most of the last eight years, but job-seekers are quickly gaining the upper hand, said McKersie, the founder and president of Pro Search, a Portland recruiting and staffing firm “The market’s tight,” McKersie said, and that means it might take longer to fill open positions and require better pay and benefits to attract well-qualified candidates. The changing market is reflected in the state’s plummeting unemployment rate, which has hit lows not seen in more than a decade. The state Department of Labor said Tuesday that the jobless rate in December was 4.0 percent, down 0.1 percentage point from November and the lowest since August 2001.