Hiring picks up, job openings drop

Employers accelerated their hiring in November while posting fewer job openings, a sign that the labor market is recovering as businesses remain slow to expand.

All told, private firms and federal, state and local governments posted 3.16 million jobs in November, a drop from 3.22 million in October, which has trended upward since the end of the recession in June 2009, the Labor Department reported on Tuesday.

Businesses hired 4.15 million workers in November, a 3 percent increase from the previous month and up from 3.6 million in October 2009, the most recent low.

In the past 12 months, the hiring rate increased for construction and business services were up in the Midwest and decreased in the Northeast, while they were largely unchanged in the South and West. 

Still, the figure is below the 5 million hires in December 2007 when the recession began. The number of hires has increased by 15 percent since the end of the recession.

By comparison, openings hit a three-year high of 3.4 million in September while hirings hit 4.25 million, the highest number since May 2010.

While the number of job openings remained below the 4.4 million openings when the recession began in December 2007, the level in November was 1 million higher than in July 2009, the most recent low. 

The number of job openings has increased 30 percent since the end of the recession, according to the Labor Department. 

The Midwest and South regions had increases in the number of job openings, and the West experienced a decline over the year. 

Although the number of those unemployed is declining — 13.3 million in November and 13.1 million in December — with only slightly more than 3 million jobs being advertised, there clearly aren't enough jobs to create greater reductions in the jobless rate. 

Still, the economy added 200,000 net jobs last month, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, the lowest level in three years. 

The good news for the job market is that the economy has added at least 100,000 jobs in each of the past six months — the best performance in more than five years.