Although job openings slipped down in May, the hiring rate increased to the highest levels in 2 years. As this MSN News article explains, a number of these jobs were census workers, but the data still indicates an overall improvement for the U.S job market.
"The positive thing is job openings in general have been trending higher since February, even though they dipped in May. It confirms that the labor market has bottomed, there are some new jobs (being created)," said Harm Bandholz, chief US Economist at UniCredit Research in New York.
Job openings, a measure of labor demand, dipped to 3.21 million from 3.30 million in April, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.
The job openings rate, a gauge of how many jobs were still open at the end of the month, eased to 2.4 percent from 2.5 percent in April.
But hirings rose to 4.50 million from 4.29 million, lifting the rate of hiring to 3.4 percent -- the highest since August 2008 -- from 3.3 percent in April.