Advertised Job Openings at Two Year High

Washington, DC, Dec. 8, 2010 -- Job openings are at their highest level in two years, the Labor Department said Tuesday in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey.

Businesses and government advertised nearly 3.4 million jobs at the end of October, up about 12% from the previous month, the Labor Department said.

Analysts say job openings are a good indication of the hiring picture ahead because it can take up to three months to fill most jobs.

The data reverses two months of declines and is the highest total since August 2008, just before the financial crisis intensified.

Overall, the number of advertised jobs has increased by about 1 million, or 44%, since the low point of July 2009, a month after the recession ended. But openings are still far below the 4.4 million advertised in December in 2007, when the recession began.

Also, a new survey by staffing company Manpower Inc. suggests businesses are ready to pick up the pace. Manpower's U.S. hiring index rose to 9% for the January-March quarter of 2011, from 5% in the October-December quarter of 2010.

That's the highest in two years, but still far below the 20% that the index averaged from 2003 to 2007.

The gains occurred in a range of industries: Openings in retail rose by nearly 6%, while openings in professional and business services, a category that includes temporary jobs, soared by 33%.