The number of job openings in the United States has hit a new low in April, contributing to the 0.5 percentage point gain in May’s unemployment rate.
There were 2.5 million job openings as of the last day of April, the fewest openings since records were first kept in 2000, according to figures reported Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Labor. That’s a 3.9 percent drop from the end of March, and 36.2 percent decline since the April 2008.
Since June 2007, the number of job openings has shrunk by 47 percent, with 2.3 million fewer positions available.
There were 4.2 million hires made in April, up 1.6 percent from March, and 4.7 million new job separations, up a fraction of a percent from the month before.
In May, the United States lost a net of 345,000 jobs, pushing the unemployment rate to 9.4 percent, a new 25-year high.
The number of government job openings rose 27.5 percent to 450,000 from March to April, due primarily to an increase in jobs for temporary workers for the 2010 Census.
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