Openings in education and health services fell to 558,000 from 589,000, the report said, while openings for manufacturing jobs dropped to 123,000 from 141,000. Openings in leisure and hospitality fell to 296,000 from 332,000.
The figures come after the department said Friday that the number of unemployed Americans rose to 13.7 million in April. And the jobless rate reached 8.9 percent, the highest in more than 25 years.
Other recent reports indicate that hiring hasn't picked up since the department gathered the job openings data in March.
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"We haven't seen a big uptick yet" in new job openings, said Joanie Ruge, senior vice president at Adecco Group North America, a human resources firm that places mostly temporary and contract workers.
Without new hiring, the unemployment rate will rise further. In part, that's because many people who were discouraged and stopped looking for work at the depths of a recession customarily begin looking again once a recovery begins. If jobs aren't available, new job seekers join the pool of unemployed workers.
The private Conference Board said this week that its Employment Trends Index dipped 0.7 percent in April, a smaller decline than in recent months but still a sign of labor market weakness.
Gad Levanon, senior economist for the Conference Board, said the job market has improved from earlier this year. But he said he doesn't expect openings to increase for several more months.
More layoffs were announced in the past week. DuPont said it will cut 2,000 jobs, while Microsoft Corp. said it was starting thousands of the 5,000 job cuts it announced earlier this year and left the door open to even more.
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