Pasadena, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/14/2011 -- The Labor Department has said in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey that there were 3.1 million job openings in December 2010.

The figure is slightly down from 3.2 million job openings in November. With 14.5 million Americans unemployed, the ratio of unemployed people to available openings in December stood at 4.7.Although job postings have been increasing slowly since their lowest level in July 2009, they have still not reached the pre-recession levels. In December 2007, there were 4.4 million job openings.

The sectors that saw a fall in openings were construction, manufacturing, education, and healthcare. But job openings rose in trade, transportation, retail, and utilities. Overall, private sector openings went down to 2.6 million from 2.9 million. While the government positions increased despite the ongoing layoffs.

The survey also counts how many employees quit or were let go every month. In December, layoffs and quits remained at 4.2 million.

The total number of workers hired also stayed at 4.2 million, with the private sector doing most of the hiring of about 3.9 million people. Hound, a job search engine, has been able to find 935,000 job openings from employer websites. The list includes all states and every major job category.