Job Openings Rise

WASHINGTON (AP) — Employers posted a sharp increase in job openings in October, raising hopes that hiring could pick up in the coming months.

Businesses and government advertised nearly 3.4 million jobs at the end of October, up about 12 percent from the previous month, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That reverses two months of declines and is the highest total since August 2008, just before the financial crisis intensified.

Overall, the number of advertised jobs has increased by about 1 million, or 44 percent, since the low point of July 2009, a month after the recession ended. But openings are still far below the 4.4 million advertised in December in 2007, when the recession began………