Job Openings Rise to Highest Level in 16 Months

Job openings jumped in April to the highest level in 16 months, a sign that private employers might boost hiring in coming months.

The number of jobs advertised at the end of April rose to 3.1 million from 2.8 million in March, the Labor Department said Tuesday, the most openings since December 2008.

Private employers accounted for the entire net gain. The government’s advertising for jobs decreased, despite the hiring of hundreds of thousands of census workers in May.

The department’s report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, follows an employment report last week that found private employers added only 41,000 jobs in May. Temporary census hiring accounted for 411,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent in April.

The outlook also was strong in Austin, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey. Sixteen percent of the Central Texas companies surveyed by staffing company Manpower Inc. said they plan to add jobs in the third quarter, and only 7 percent expect to cut jobs.

The difference of 9 percentage points between the proportions of local companies looking to add and shed workers compares with a difference of 3 percentage points in the July-to-September period last year, when nearly as many companies planned to cut jobs as to add them.

The rise in job openings “makes you a little more upbeat about the labor market,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JP-Morgan Chase.

Read more at http://www.statesman.com/business/job-openings-rise-to-highest-level-in-16-735386.html.

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