Job Openings Higher Than a Year Ago

Washington, DC, March 13, 2012 -- Job openings in the U.S. declined to 3.46 million in January from 3.54 million in December, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

Compared with the prior year, job openings rose 21% -- private openings increased 23% to 3.11 million, and government openings rose to 352,000 from 325,000.

There were about 4.3 million jobs open when the recession began in December 2007. With about 12.76 million unemployed people in January, there were about 3.7 potential job seekers for each opening, roughly the same as in December.

In January of 2011, there were about 13.92 million unemployed people - about 4.9 potential seekers per opening.