Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) — Job openings in the climbed in October to the second highest level in almost 14 years as employers looked for staff to contend with strengthening demand.

The number of positions waiting to be filled rose by 149,000 to 4.83 million from a revised 4.69 million in September, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. Other aspects of the report, including, hiring, firing and quits, were little changed.

Vacancies are increasing as companies, running lean from recession-era job cutting, seek to boost headcount amid accelerating growth in the world's largest economy. Continued improvements in the labor market will be needed to carry that momentum into next year and help assure Federal Reserve policy makers that the economy can withstand the first interest rate increase since 2006.

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.

Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Employer-Paid
Employee Participation