Job Openings Rise To Highest Level Since September 2008

WASHINGTON -- Businesses in February posted the largest number of job openings in more than two years, evidence that hiring is picking up as the economy grows.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that employers advertised 3.1 million available jobs that month, the most since September 2008. That was the height of the financial crisis, when Lehman Brothers collapsed.

The competition for those jobs is easing, though still intense. The department's report shows that there were 4.4 people, on average, competing for each available job in February. That's down from nearly 7 in July 2009, but still above the approximately 2 to 1 ratio that exists in a healthy economy.

A rise in employment advertisements is the latest sign that companies are stepping up hiring. The private sector in March added more than 200,000 jobs for a second straight month, the first time that's happened since 2006. And the unemployment rate fell to 8.8 percent, the lowest level in two years.

Job openings are usually filled within one to three months after posting, which means the report can be an indicator of future hiring activity. If that holds true, April could be another strong month for job growth.

The number of jobs advertised has increased by nearly 1 million since they bottomed out in July 2009, a month after the recession ended. But they are still well below the 4.4 million openings that were advertised in December 2007, when the recession began.

Openings rose sharply in professional and business services, which include accountants, legal services and temporary help agencies. Education and health care and hotels and restaurants also posted big jumps in job postings. Openings in state and local governments, which fell sharply last month, edged up slightly.

Comments

[Teresa Young]

05:37 PM on 04/15/2011

Where they hiding all of the jobs?

[spinotter11]

09:13 AM on 04/15/2011

Things are gradually, very gradually, improving. The middle class is in tatters but at least it probably won't get much worse right away.

[loki]

02:08 AM on 04/15/2011

Just went to a job seeking seminar with a couple friends the other day. It was at University of Missouri and was suppose to teach those seeking employment the tricks , and how to avoid the pitfalls of todays job hiring process. Made me glad I was still working. They said employers dont want people with kids, and HR employees will try to trick you into saying you have kids so they can X you off their list. They even put photos of kids on their desk , even when they dont have them, and hope parents will speak up thinking its safe to do so cause of the impression given by the photos. Hr sends people out to the parking lots to look at your car to see if your desperate, and to get an idea of who you are, or how much financial trouble your in. Hr spends most its time trying to find reasons not to hire you, so much so that they try to make you say things that are not true so they can send you on your way. They dont want medical problems, disabled, Parents, people with elderly parents , or any other things that might cause an employee not to dedicate their entire life to the company, and not able to drop everything at moments notice if ask. They except employees to make the Company #1 in their lives, with personal and family is way down the list of importance. Sick world

[Peanut Santiago]

11:00 PM on 04/14/2011

I'll believe it when I see it.

Why should I take the word of some media article writer? Who works for the oligarch owners of his company?
The same goes for the Labor Department.

People on Main Street are suffering.
And for most, it is not getting better.
For many it is getting worse.

[loki]

02:10 AM on 04/15/2011

Because the ivy greed capitalist pay these people to create an illusion. If you buy into the illusion, you wont wake to the truth. You wont get mad. And you for sure wont want to fight back. Something that the ivy greed capitalist know any competent person would be wanting to do with all the death and destruction the ivy greed capitalist have caused over the last 30 years alone, and that they need to be stopped soon or the whole country will be one smoldering ash.

[zelda777]

11:49 PM on 04/13/2011

Or, in other words, "Been down so long it looks like up to me."

[namewithheld]

07:31 AM on 04/14/2011

Pretty much. A nice little recession to widen the income inequality gap and allow the banks to buy up everything cheap, and then it's time to rehire some wage slaves to administer their own losses.

[spinotter11]

09:15 AM on 04/15/2011

And they don't need as many as before so we're not going to have 5% unemployment any more.

[dansup]

11:35 PM on 04/13/2011

no one is stating what I feel is the obvious -no one is retiring because they can't afford to, hence no movement in the labor market (among other reasons)

[Duppy]

07:44 PM on 04/13/2011

you mean like McDonalds 50,000 burger flipping jobs ?

[Rodger leMonde]

08:18 PM on 04/13/2011

Do read the articles before you make ignorant posts.

[JackWhistle]

09:23 PM on 04/13/2011

What was ignorant about it? I don't see your complaint.. the quality of jobs created is a major issue.

[Peanut Santiago]

11:03 PM on 04/14/2011

An $8 an hour job replaces a $14 an hour job?
THAT is relevant to the discussion.

People who HAD jobs that could support them (modestly) are now being replaced by jobs that do not support them.
People are starting to live with friends and relatives to share the expenses.
AND they aren't happy about it either.

There is a lot of social unrest....that....so far....has not exploded.
YET.

[Bravofett]

04:14 PM on 04/13/2011

Yeah but, how many jobs can people actually live off of...??

[Peanut Santiago]

11:04 PM on 04/14/2011

Less and less.

People are now doubling up with family and friends and hating it.

[spinotter11]

09:16 AM on 04/15/2011

You mean fewer. There is a difference.

[Peanut Santiago]

11:25 PM on 04/14/2011

I know a guy....21 years old....whose pay was cut in half. Literally.

He is working part time and going to college. (Good for him.)

However, his hours remain the same but he is now paid half of what he used to make.

Yea, he is hurting. And he is lucky he is living with his mother. Imagine if he was on his own completely.

[nanimal]

04:05 PM on 04/13/2011

Yeah well my company laid off 30 people yesterday even though we had our best year ever last year. These corporations just keep asking for more cuts to staff because they are finding they can be just as productive with less staff...who cares whether they work people to death ....people actually die from work related stress you know.

[OldTulsan]

04:54 PM on 04/13/2011

Maybe your employer has "dead peasant" insurance policies on the remaining employees.

http://deadpeasantinsurance.com/which-employers-bought-policies-on-the-lives-of-employees/#more-43
Which employers bought policies on the lives of employees? ╗ Dead Peasants Insurance FAQ

[angry in ct]

07:40 PM on 04/13/2011

A subject that was touched upon in Michael Moore's "Capitalisim, A Love Story"

[restoresanityrl]

05:44 PM on 04/13/2011

THEY don't care, that's for sure! Thye know you are there for the wage slave wages AND the healthcare. However, please note that you are probably contributing more for your healhcare and those rates will continue to rise. So much for getting ahead...the only ones propsering are the bosses...

[angry in ct]

03:48 PM on 04/13/2011

As a 99er, I take this article as both good news/bad news.

Yes there are more ads being posted on all the major and most used job search engines (Monster, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, etc), but then there's that pesky 4 or 5 applicants for every one job type thingy (apologies for the Sarah Palin speak, but I fully realize teabaggers read this publication too) that is the bad news.

If, as the author points out, the ratio is starting to become more even, then hurray! But I need to see this myself in the so called real world environment.

[ProletarianRenegade]

01:27 AM on 04/14/2011

Best of luck.

[spoonerrothbard]

03:43 PM on 04/13/2011

As the dollar falls towards 2008 levels...and crude rises to pre 2008 levels...

[retrievals]

03:34 PM on 04/13/2011

Job prospects in my field are up 10 fold from this time two years ago.

Thanks, Mr. President!

[jeanrenoir]

03:13 PM on 04/13/2011

Bush LOST 600,000 jobs in EIGHT years, BEFORE the Great Recession on his watch, which lost more thanb 7,000,000 more.! Obama has now created almost 2,000,000 jobs, and he'll be creating more and more from now on, right through his re-election. The white dittoheads for Fox and Rush and the Tea Party don't want to face or admit these facts, but there will be just enough fair-minded Americans of all races, who judge by results, not propaganda and lies, to put Obama over the top again in '12. This "Kenyan usurper" of the WHITE House saved America's butt with his stimulus, even though the Republicans in Congress have done all in their power to make him fail, just as Rush wanted, and to keep Americans out of work. But it didn't work; Obama's program has won.

[spoonerrothbard]

03:44 PM on 04/13/2011

Where did Bush last leave those jobs and why isn't Obama torturing him for the secret treasury map leading to those jobs that he lost?

[OldTulsan]

04:56 PM on 04/13/2011

Bush exported jobs...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001854367_bushecon10.html
The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Bush report: Sending jobs overseas helps U.S.

"WASHINGTO­N — The movement of American factory jobs and white-coll­ar work to other countries is part of a positive transforma­tion that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocatio­n, the Bush administra­tion said yesterday.

The embrace of foreign "outsourci­ng," an accelerati­ng trend that has contribute­d to U.S. job losses in recent years and has become an issue in the 2004 elections, is contained in the president'­s annual report to Congress on the U.S. economy.

"Outsourci­ng is just a new way of doing internatio­nal trade," said N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisors, which prepared the report. "More things are tradable than were tradable in the past. And that's a good thing."

[snip]

Last year's Economic Report of the President predicted that 1.7 million jobs would be created in 2003. Instead, the nation lost 53,000 jobs. In Bush's three years in office, 2.2 million jobs have disappeare­d.

Since the Great Depression­, it has never taken this long for the economy to begin creating jobs after emerging from a recession. After the last recession ended in 1991, it took 14 months for employment to begin expanding. Current problems with the economy have gone on nearly twice as long, 26 months..."

[Electronicsboy1]

03:04 PM on 04/13/2011

Great jobs! Would you like fries with your order?

[MrStat1]

03:23 PM on 04/13/2011

Would you rather have that job or no job at all, your choice!

[Peanut Santiago]

11:22 PM on 04/14/2011

The problem is not laziness or the nature of the job.

The problem IS that an $8 an hour wage does NOT go as far as a higher paying job.

People are complaining about unemployment AND underemployment.

Too many ordinary workers are being condemned to poverty level wages.

Yet all some of you can do is criticize because people prefer better working conditions (including full time employment and better wages).

YOU got yours. Too bad for us.
Maybe someday you will join us, trying to make do with shrinking income.
You never know if you will lose your present station in life.
**********I can't imagine you ARE one of us and don't mind poverty level wages.
Then again, there are a lot of peculiar people out there.

[Silverwolf72]

02:57 PM on 04/13/2011

One of the tech sites posted about them building portable robots to replace assembly workers in China, even $1 a day is to much to pay people now.

[spoonerrothbard]

03:45 PM on 04/13/2011

I agree with that. I have no faith in humanity. A robot is something I could get behind, especially if it has holes back there.

[spinotter11]

09:22 AM on 04/15/2011

Hard and jagged edges.

[JustinBeiberJr]

10:30 AM on 04/14/2011

But when the robots rebel against humans Human Rebel Brigade fighter jobs will open up .

[Silverwolf72]

11:39 AM on 04/14/2011

We will be turned into drones