Labor Department: Job Openings Increased in August

Along with its weekly unemployment report, the Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of job opening in August increased for the second straight month.

According to the Associated Press, the number of advertised jobs rose by 3.2 million, nearly a 2 percent increase from the previous month and the highest since April.

At private companies, job openings rose to 2.85 million, which was the most in 21 months. Layoff also fell in the private sector to 1.6 million in August, which is the lowest in more than four years, the Associated Press reports.

The Labor department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey also revealed employers hired 4.1 million people in August, which is an increase of just 71,000 from July 2009.

The number of job openings in the professional and business sectors rose to 689,000, which was an increase from 564,000 the previous month. The construction, manufacturing and retail sectors all saw drops in the number of available jobs.