Report says job openings hit 2½ year high
The news is sunnier for the job market, the number of job openings has hit the greatest number since September 2008 when Lehman Brothers collapsed. These job seekers were lined up for a job fair late last month in San Jose, Calif. (March 22, 2011) Credit: AP
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 says 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.
Total openings have increased by about 900,000 since 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.
