BUSINESS BRIEFING
Times Wire Reports
Job openings are at rock-bottom levels, a government survey shows, a trend that could keep the unemployment rate high even as layoffs slow.
The Labor Department said employers advertised about 2.5 million job openings at the end of September, up slightly from the previous month but down from a peak of 4.8 million openings in June 2007.
The department said there were about 6.1 unemployed workers competing for each job opening, down from 6.2 in October, the most since it began tracking job openings nine years ago.
