Job openings in US continue to decrease

It's hard enough finding a job in the US right now.

And according to the US Labor Department it just got a bit tougher. Open positions fell for the third time in four months.

The number of available positions fell to 80-thousand--reducing the overall number to 3 and a quarter million job vacancies. It would seem that there are still plenty of spots open, but less than before, which means fewer opportunities for Americans to find work.

Jacob Kirkegaard says the numbers are indicative of an anemic US job market. Consumers in a post-holiday market are exhibiting a record slowdown in spending.

Job openings dropped nearly two and half percent in November from just more than 3 million in the prior month. According to the labor department, that's the most since October 2008. Americans are fearful that the trend could get worse.

According to this week's estimates there were 15 million people unemployed in November. That's nearly 5 people competing for each job opening. To put things in perspective, when the recession began in 2007 there were less than 2 people competing for a job opening.

However, there has been some encouraging news that showed the unemployment rate dipped to 9.4 percent, the lowest since May 2009--still a far cry from a recovery.

Despite glimmers of hope and spin from the White House, the US economy still languishes and hardship continues for millions of Americans who will have to compete harder to fill an open position.