A Million Job Openings

Here's a milestone for the U.S. economy: There are now about 1 million more open jobs than unemployed workers. U.S. employers posted nearly 7.6 million open jobs in January, near a record high set in November, the Labor Department said Friday

The report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, showed that layoffs declined, a reassuring sign that employers weren't spooked by the government shutdown, which ended January 25. Nearly 3.5 million people quit their jobs in January, up 2.9 percent from the previous month.

Quits are a sign of a healthy economy, because people typically leave a job for another, usually higher-paying, one. Openings began to outpace the unemployed last spring, for the first time in the 18 years the data has been tracked.