U.S. employers advertised more openings and hired more people in June, adding to evidence that the job market has rebounded from a brief soft patch in the spring, The Associated Press reports.
The number of job openings rose a modest 2% to 5.6 million in June from 5.5 million in May, the Labor Department says. Still, that figure remains below the 5.8 million openings advertised in April, the highest on record going back 16 years.
Hiring increased 1.7% in June to 5.1 million, a solid level but below a recent peak of 5.5 million in February.
Businesses are hiring at a healthy pace even as economic growth has lagged, in part because the workforce has become less productive.
The economy expanded at an annual rate of just 1% in the first half of the year, though analysts expect growth to accelerate to about a 3% annual rate in the current July-September quarter.
