Available U.S. Jobs at 3.5 Year High

(NECN: Peter Howe, Waltham, Mass.) - It’s the latest in a string of data points suggesting some modest, gathering momentum in the U.S. job market: The Labor Department Tuesday reported employers had 3.4 million jobs open in December, up 10 percent from the month earlier, and the highest number of private-sector job openings in nearly 3.5 years.

On the heels of last week’s report of a quarter-million more Americans working, news of another quarter-million jobs open offered some additional hope of economic recovery – although there remain 12.8 million unemployed Americans, nearly four for every one job open, and 40 percent of those unemployed have been out of work for six months or more and face a tougher and tougher time finding a job the longer they are out of work.

One small example of where these new jobs are coming from: Metratech, a 140-person Waltham, Mass., company that makes a cutting-edge billing software platform used by companies selling everything from smart phone apps to online software to conference-calling minutes and stock-exchange transfers.

CEO Scott Swartz said he’s seeing some signs of an U.S. economy turning for the better, with Metratech’s fate helped by explosive growth in emerging markets like Brazil, where Metratech provides the billing and compensation systems used by derivatives traders.

“For a while -- 18 months ago -- you had a company that had a problem and they might not have been willing to spend the money,’’ Swartz said. “What's happened [is] we're feeling more market pull than we've ever felt in our history.’’

That means more jobs. “This year we're looking to hire about three dozen people, pretty much the full gamut from some entry-level people up to one executive” including engineers, business analysts, sales and marketing staff and sales and engineering people with specific expertise in industry sectors like financial services and “cloud computing.” Already, Metratech has about 10 to 12 open jobs for which it’s recruiting candidates – its small share of the overall 3.4 million openings recorded across the country in December.

Bill Driscoll, northeast district president for staffing and recruiting giant Robert Half International, said as with Metratech, job prospects are best for those with more education. Asked what his number-one job-seeking tip is for 2012, Driscoll said, “The first thing I’d say is: Finish that degree. Unemployment is below four percent, right around four percent, for the college-educated.’’

But just as Metratech is recruiting along the spectrum of sales, engineering, and business operations jobs, Driscoll sees more and more evidence the economy as a whole is creating job openings along the whole employment spectrum.

“We really did see it across the board: Manufacturing, business services, professional services, retailers,’’ Driscoll said. “What we 're seeing is slow, steady improvement across really all sectors of the economy, and actually a little bit faster than everyone anticipated.’’

With videographer Cameron T. Robbins

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