US employers advertise more jobs in October

The Labor Department said Tuesday that job openings rose by 128,000 to 3.68 million. That's the most since June.

The number of available jobs is slowly climbing back to the roughly 4 million that were advertised each month before the recession began in December 2007.

With nearly 12.3 million people unemployed in October, there were 3.3 unemployed people, on average, competing for each open job. That's the lowest ratio since November 2008. Still, in a healthy economy, the ratio is roughly 2 to 1.

In one positive sign, the number of available construction jobs jumped to 130,000, from 82,000 in September. That's the most in more than four years. The housing market is slowly recovering and builders are breaking ground on more single-family homes.

Job openings also rose in manufacturing, retail, and hotels and restaurants. Professional and business services, a category that includes engineers and accountants as well as temporary jobs, also posted more openings.

Companies kept creating jobs in November at a modest pace. Employers added 146,000 net jobs last month, the government said Friday in a separate report. That nearly matches the average gains of about 150,000 jobs per month that the economy has generated all year.