The number of US jobs waiting to be filled edged down slightly in October, suggesting the labour market remained in a steady state that month. There were 3.27 million available jobs at the end of October, down from September's upwardly revised 3.38 million, according to the Labour Department's Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey released on Tuesday.
Monthly job openings - unfilled, posted vacancies that employers plan to fill within 30 days - help describe demand for labour. The number has consistently hovered below the 4.4 million openings registered in December 2007, before the 2008-2009 recession.
The number of Americans without jobs has increased by more than 6 million since the onset of the recession. Hiring also eased in October, with business and government hires slipping to 4.04 million from a downwardly revised 4.15 million in September. The US jobless rate was 9.0 percent in October, down just a bit from 9.1 percent in September, but it fell sharply to 8.6 percent in November, data from the Labour Department showed earlier this month.
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