The number of US jobs waiting to be filled was little changed in November, suggesting the labour market remained stable that month. There were 3.16 million available jobs at the end of November, down slightly from October's downwardly revised 3.22 million, according to the Labour Department's Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey released on Tuesday.
Monthly job openings - unfilled, posted vacancies that employers plan to fill within 30 days - help describe demand for labour. The number has consistently hovered below the 4.4 million openings registered in December 2007, before the 2008-2009 recession.
The number of Americans without jobs has increased by more than 6 million since the onset of the recession.
Hiring rose in November, with business and government hires increasing to 4.15 million from 4.04 million in October. The US jobless rate was 8.7 percent in November, down from 8.9 percent in October, and it fell further to 8.5 percent in December, data from the Labour Department showed this month. The rate at which workers were separated from jobs by layoffs or quits, a measure of labour turnover, was 3.0 percent in November, unchanged from October.