Jobs Locator: A Breakdown of Who Is Hiring and Where

June 13, 2011 — -- There were 2.9 million job openings in April, 41 percent higher than the recession low point in July 2009 but still well below the 4.8 million job openings seen before the Great Recession began.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says its read of the current hiring and openings picture shows professional and business services had a high job openings rate and a high hires rate in April. That is an indication that despite strong hiring, even more employees were needed.

Education and health services had a high job openings rate but relatively low hires in April, indicating that the needed employees were not hired.

Conversely, construction had a high hires rate and a low job openings rate in April, indicating that employees were needed and were easily hired.

Arts, entertainment and recreation had a high hires rate in April, but since it is a small industry, that equaled only 118,000 hires. Below, see how your industry stacked up.

Industries With Biggest Increases

The industries with the biggest increases in job openings in the last year (April 2010 to April 2011) were:

Industries With Smallest Increases

The industries with the biggest decreases or smallest increases in job openings in the last year were:

Geographical Location of Current Job Openings:

West: 783K openings (-57K from last year)Mass Layoffs

Big layoffs (as measured by the 12-month moving average of mass layoffs as reported by the government) are down 38 percent from their peak level in September 2009. The number of people filing first-time unemployment claims has fallen about 33 percent (four-week moving average) since its peak level in March 2009.

The number of people filing first-time unemployment claims has fallen about 33 percent (four-week moving average) since its peak level in March 2009. Claims have recently seen an uptick, but economists say that the after-effects of the Japan quake are likely the cause, as some factories in the U.S. had to shut down because of a lack of supplies. Many people believe claims should start going lower again soon.

All information courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics April 2011 Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey