Employers post more jobs, cut fewer workers at start of 2013

U.S. employers advertised more job openings in January, suggesting that hiring will remain healthy in the coming months. Job opening figures rose 2.2% in January from December to 3.69 million, the Labor Department says in a report released this morning. Openings had fallen nearly 5% in December; they were still below November’s level of nearly 3.8 million. There were other positive signs in today’s report: Employers laid off the fewest workers in January than in any month since records were first created in 2001. And the number of Americans quitting their jobs rose to the highest in more than four years: People usually quit when they have another job, so more quitting suggests it is easier to find work. There is still a lot of competition for open positions. About 12.3 million people were unemployed in January. That means there were 3.3 unemployed people, on average, competing for each job. In a healthy economy, that ratio is roughly 2 to 1. Rising openings and quits add to recent evidence that the job market is improving. Employers added 236,000 jobs in February, the government reported Friday. That pushed the unemployment rate down from 7.9% in January to a four-year low of 7.7% last month.