Apex, N.C. — An opening for a full-time customer service person for the city of Apex prompted 973 applications – a record for the city, officials said.

“It’s very sad when you look at the applicants, (and) you know that probably all of them can do the job,” Apex Human Resources Director Eleanor Green said. “A lot of them that have lost jobs have had much higher-paying jobs.”

It's the same situation all over the Triangle. Large numbers of people are applying for the few jobs that are available.

In Raleigh, 197 people recently applied for one customer service position. An administrative assistant position attracted 198 applicants, and a 911 operator job had 242 applicants.

“Jobs are coming onto the market so slowly that everyone’s watching to see what comes on,” Employment Security Commission Chairman Moses Carey Jr. said. “So you have people applying for that position who might not have applied for that position a year or two ago.”

Queenie Johnson has been looking for a job for seven months. “It’s really terrible,” she said.

Johnson has been sending out about four applications a week.

“Everybody’s looking for a job,” she said.

About 460,000 people collected North Carolina unemployment benefits in the past month. The average time a person spends on unemployment is 13.3 weeks.