Big Drop in Perceived Job Availability

In the Conference Board’s monthly Confidence Survey, they ask respondents if jobs are “plentiful,” “not so plentiful,” or “hard to get.” I keep track of the percentages of respondents (as reported in the press release), particularly for the “plentiful” category. In August, it dropped by 4.2 percentage points, the biggest one-month drop since October 2001. In the past (since 1978, when the survey began to be conducted monthly), such large one-month drops have always been associated with recessions.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the declines in help wanted advertising that I observed here and here. (Do you think?) It is a bit of a puzzle, though, why perceived job availability held up so well until July.