Pasadena, CA -- (SBWire) --06/09/2011 --Job openings fell in the U.S. for the first time in three months in April.

The total number of job openings fell by 151,000 and stood at 2.97 according to the Labor Department. This was a decrease of 4.8% from the revised figure of 3.12 million job openings for March.

This confirms what economists have been saying for some time now; that the private sector is again losing confidence in the economy. May was a disappointing month with only 54,000 net jobs created in the private sector.

Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke has said that the economy is losing momentum and the central bank should maintain its policy of monetary stimulus to boost the slow and uneven recovery.

The biggest hit was taken by the professional and business services sector where openings fell by 91,000. In second place was the education and healthcare sector with 65,000 fewer openings. The construction industry also had 28,000 more openings.

The total number of jobs in the 12 months ending in April was 1.2 million net jobs, after factoring in hiring and separations. EmploymentCrossing, a job aggregator site, has been able to find over 1.2 million job openings nationwide this month.

The top five sectors with the most jobs on EmploymentCrossing are as follows:

• Healthcare - 280,000+
• Managerial -190,000+
• Information Technology - 158,000+
• Blue-collar -130,000+
• Sales - 126,000+