February 8, 2011,   Wall Street Journal

Layoffs Down, but Hiring Still Slow

By JUSTIN LAHART

The U.S. job market has returned to pre-recession levels in at least one category: layoffs.

Employers let go 1.84 million workers in December, the Labor Department said Tuesday, down from 2.05 million a year earlier and a bit lower than the levels that prevailed prior to the start of the recession in late 2007.

But hiring remains slow: There were 4.18 million people hired in December, up from 4 million a year earlier—but far below 2007’s average of 5.27 million a month. The Labor Department also said there were 3.1 million job openings at the end of December. With 14.5 million people unemployed and looking for work, that meant that there were 4.7 job seekers for every available job, three times the norm in 2007.

“The weakness is definitely in the hiring side,” said Credit Suisse economist Henry Mo.

Mr. Mo also noted that the number of job openings in the past year increased more rapidly than the number of new hires. That could be a sign that companies are having a hard time finding qualified workers. But the more likely reason, he said, was that with a large pool of unemployed workers to draw from, “employees have the luxury to take time to fill the jobs they’ve advertised.”

Separately, confidence among U.S. small-business leaders gained a bit last month, amid continued concern about the business outlook. The National Federation for Independent Business, in a report Tuesday, said its January index moved to 94.1, a 1.5-point rise from December, led higher by positive earnings trends and expectations of higher sales.

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