There were 2.9 million job openings as of the end of September, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The rate of openings rate was little changed over the month with an increase of 2.2 percent. The rates at which employers hired and fired employees finished the month at 3.2 percent, unchanged from the previous month.
Although the month-to-month change in the number of job openings was small, the number of openings reported in September was 25 percent greater than the number reported in July 2009, in the depths of the recession.
