WASHINGTON — Companies are laying off fewer workers and advertising more job openings, two encouraging signs that arrived a day before the government issues the September jobs report.
But economists say employers aren’t ramping up hiring fast enough to reduce the unemployment rate, now 9.6 percent. Some economists expect the rate to top 10 percent by early next year.
Companies at least aren’t laying off so many workers. Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits for the fourth time in five weeks, the Labor Department said Thursday.
A separate report showed job openings rose in August for the second straight month. Private-sector employers advertised the most available jobs since November 2008, the report said.
But the increases aren’t enough to turn the job market around any time soon, economists said.
“The data that we’re seeing is still consistent with a very slow jobs recovery,” said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
