Some bright spots emerge in tough job market

WASHINGTON -- Signs of stabilization in the job market are emerging, according to several private surveys, as restaurants, mortgage servicers and health centers step up hiring.

About a quarter of manufacturing companies and more than 40% of service-sector employers plan to hire workers in June, the highest totals in six months, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. Still, the figures are substantially lower than they were a year ago.

The Conference Board said last week that online job ads rose by 250,000 in May to 3.37 million, the first increase since October and the largest jump since October 2006.

Still, economists caution that jobs overall will remain scarce for months because most employers are likely to wait until the economy grows at a healthy pace before they feel confident enough to add workers. That might not happen until well into 2010, many economists say.

The nation's jobless rate jumped to a 25-year high of 9.4% in May — a stark reminder of the difficulty unemployed workers are having finding jobs. The Federal Reserve expects unemployment to remain elevated until 2011.

Meanwhile, more people are seeking fewer jobs. A Labor Department report Tuesday showed that total job openings fell in April to 2.5 million, from 2.6 million the previous month.

With 13.7 million people unemployed in March, that meant more than five people were competing, on average, for each job opening. That's up sharply from fewer than two people per job a year ago.

That's little changed from the current quarter.

The Labor Department's report Tuesday, known as Job Openings and Labor Turnover, did show some pockets of growth for the first time in months: openings for lawyers, accountants and other professional business services rose by 30,000 to 458,000.