That is one of the questions we frequently receive here at The Work Buzz. And we do our best to point you in the right direction. Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics made locating these open positions a simpler task by releasing the current January Job Openings and Labor Turnover Report.

It’s a lengthy release, so we’ll just give you some of the highlights.

• On the last day of January, there were 2.7  million job openings
• The job openings rate increased to 2.1 percent, which is the highest it’s been since February of last year
• Over the 12-month period ending in January, 48.4 million workers gained employment and 52.4 million workers separated from their jobs (a figure that includes both layoffs and resignations). Therefore the period saw a loss of 4 million workers.

Which industries have the most job openings?

The most opportunities exist in education and health services, where you can 620,000 positions were open at the end of January. In the same month 520,000 were hired into this industry, suggesting that employers are actively trying to get people onboard as soon as possible.

Professional and business services have the second highest amount of openings with 508,000. Trade, transportation and utilities come in third, with a respectable 482,000 available positions.

And perhaps the best news:

The layoffs and discharges rate fell over the year in many industries, including construction, durable goods manufacturing, nondurable goods manufacturing, wholesale trade, information, finance and insurance, real estate and rental and leasing, and other services. Regionally, the rate fell over the year in 3 of the 4 regions—Midwest, Northeast, and South. The layoffs and discharges rate did not rise over the year in any industry or region.

Not only are jobs waiting for the right candidate (you!), but industries aren’t laying off and discharging workers at the same rates as last year. I think we all want some good news, so we’ll take it.

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Some critics (in the House and in the general population) feel the bill is unnecessary. Others think it doesn’t do enough. Many observers feel it’s close but not perfect. And some people actually like it. What’s all the fuss about? Well, here are some of the highlights of the bill to give you an idea of what the Senate needs to approve next week before anything else happens (via AP):

 The $100 billion-plus bill would extend unemployment assistance, revive a bevy of expired tax breaks, help states with soaring Medicaid costs and prevent doctors from having to absorb big cuts in Medicare payments. The popular initiatives are traditionally extended on a bipartisan basis for brief periods of time, which hides their long-term costs.

First, [the jobs bill] would exempt businesses hiring the unemployed from the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax through December and give them an additional $1,000 credit if new workers stay on the job a full year.

Second, it would extend highway and mass transit programs through the end of the year and pump in $20 billion for the spring construction season. The money would make up for lower-than-expected gasoline tax revenues.

You’ll be hearing more about this in the coming days, weeks and months. If you love it or hate it, I think we can all agree that hopefully positive results will come from this.

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Here are the highlights:

• The number of unemployed persons decreased to 14.8 million
• Employment fell in construction by -75,000, in transportation and warehousing by 19,000, and in financial activities by -16,000
• Temporary help services added 52,000 jobs,  retail trade employment rose by 42,000, the federal government added 33,000 jobs (including 9,000 temporary positions for Census 2010) and health care continued to trend up by adding 14,500 jobs.
• The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) continued to trend up in January, reaching 6.3 million. Since the start of the recession, the number of long-term unemployed has risen by 5.0 million
• There were 1.1 million discouraged workers — not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them — up from 734,000 a year earlier. 

Even though the Bureau of Labor Statistics job loss numbers could  were negative for January, unemployed Americans continue to be resilient in their job searches. In fact, 58 percent of those laid off in the last twelve months have secured new positions. According to an updated survey by CareerBuilder, 51 percent of workers who were laid off from full-time jobs in the last 12 months have found new full-time positions, up from 48 percent in June 2009.

Want to know how those people found their jobs? Watch CareerBuilder’s Jason Ferrara discuss the survey on First Business.

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Over at Novaurora Blog, Jason Putorti made a handy word cloudfor Obama’s speech. Front and center, sandwiched between the oversized text of people and America is jobs. Obviously, getting people back to work is as much on his mind as it is on the average American’s.

If you go to the New York Times site, you can see video of the speech and the accompanying text. Along the top is a timeline of the address, so you can see when he moves from one point to another and see just how much of this speech was about the job situation. At 1:43 into the speech, he first mentions our current (or most recent, depending on whom you talk to) recession and unemployed Americans. At 9:18 he references unemployment benefits. At 10:51 he continues his discussion of employment and continues until 13:50, when he begins to discuss his plan to create jobs. And it goes on and on–you can read the full text (sans video) here. The point is that the state of our union depends on jobs, and surely most of you reading this know that. If you’re looking for work either because you’re unemployed or want a change, you realize how much your career influences all other aspects of your life, and that affects everyone else in the long run.

Here are just some of the speech’s moments relating to jobs:

One in 10 Americans still cannot find work. Many businesses have shuttered. Home values have declined. Small towns and rural communities have been hit especially hard. And for those who’d already known poverty, life has become that much harder.

That’s why we extended or increased unemployment benefits for more than 18 million Americans; made health insurance 65 percent cheaper for families who get their coverage through COBRA; and passed 25 different tax cuts.

But I realize that for every success story, there are other stories, of men and women who wake up with the anguish of not knowing where their next paycheck will come from; who send out resumes week after week and hear nothing in response. That is why jobs must be our number-one focus in 2010, and that’s why I’m calling for a new jobs bill tonight.

We should start where most new jobs do –- in small businesses, companies that begin when companies that begin when an entrepreneur — when an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream, or a worker decides it’s time she became her own boss. Through sheer grit and determination, these companies have weathered the recession and they’re ready to grow.

We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities — and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy-efficient, which supports clean energy jobs.

But the truth is, these steps won’t make up for the seven million jobs that we’ve lost over the last two years. The only way to move to full employment is to lay a new foundation for long-term economic growth, and finally address the problems that America’s families have confronted for years.

Last year, we made the largest investment in basic research funding in history -– an investment that could lead to the world’s cheapest solar cells or treatment that kills cancer cells but leaves healthy ones untouched. And no area is more ripe for such innovation than energy. You can see the results of last year’s investments in clean energy -– in the North Carolina company that will create 1,200 jobs nationwide helping to make advanced batteries; or in the California business that will put a thousand people to work making solar panels.

Obviously, it’s a bittersweet topic–for every bit of enthusiasm, it’s tempered with the reality of today’s unemployment situation. And it’s controversial depending on your ideological standpoint, I’m sure. Certainly not everyone reading this blog agrees with Obama–either with what he says or what he’s done. And perspective certainly comes into play, too. The AP released its fact check of the speech. Some points he made were labeled as false, others true. And one key jobs assertion? Well, that depends…

OBAMA: “Because of the steps we took, there are about 2 million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed. … And we are on track to add another one and a half million jobs to this total by the end of the year.”

THE FACTS: The success of the Obama-pushed economic stimulus that Congress approved early last year has been an ongoing point of contention. In December, the administration reported that recipients of direct assistance from the government created or saved about 650,000 jobs. The number was based on self-reporting by recipients and some of the calculations were shown to be in error.

The Congressional Budget Office has been much more guarded than Obama in characterizing the success of the stimulus plan. In November, it reported that the stimulus increased the number of people employed by between 600,000 and 1.6 million “compared with what those values would have been otherwise.” It said the ranges “reflect the uncertainty of such estimates.” And it added, “It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package.”

So what does this all mean? Ultimately, everyone is trying to figure out how to get the job situation under control. You and I–aka regular people–want to know that we’ll have a paycheck tomorrow or find a new job when we want to. The president and Congress are trying to figure out how to make that that hope a reality (if for no other reason than to get reelected). We’ve also posted about the stimulus package of the last year, too. (See Stimulus package for job seekers and Great Jobs in the President’s Stimulus Plan) Everyone’s thinking about jobs–from you and me all the way up to the president.

If you watched last night and are reading this blog, jobs are certainly on your mind. So what was your reaction to Obama’s address? Let us know what your thoughts are on the job situation, his plans and what he’s done about jobs so far.

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In December, both the number of unemployed persons, at 15.3 million, and the unemployment rate, at 10.0 percent, were unchanged. Additionally, October’s number was revised from -111,000 to -127,000, and the change for November was revised from -11,000 to +4,000.

What does this mean for you? To get a better understanding of these numbers and what they mean, watch CareerBuilder’s CEO Matt Ferguson discuss the latest numbers and the 2010 job forecast on CNBC’s Squawk Box.

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Yesterday, the Brookings Institute released the Q3 edition of its MetroMonitor, a “quarterly, interactive barometer of the health of America’s 100 largest metropolitan economies.” The MetroMonitor analyzes trends in U.S. metro employment, unemployment, economic performance, housing prices and real estate-owned properties to determine the rate of the country’s recession and recovery.

So what did they find with regards to jobs? Looking at Q2 2009 to Q3 2009, the overall percent change in employment change in the top 100 largest metro areas was -0.5% and also -0.5% for the entire U.S. Eleven metros that saw increases in employment in the last quarter and another six saw no change at all. Here are the 11 metros that saw positive job growth:

1. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
   Change in employment Q2 2009-Q3 2009: 1.3
2. New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA
   Change in employment Q2 2009-Q3 2009: 0.6
3. New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA
   Change in employment Q2 2009-Q3 2009: 0.5
4. Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA
   Change in employment Q2 2009-Q3 2009: 0.5
5. Columbia, SC
   Change in employment Q2 2009-Q3 2009: 0.3
6. Worcester, MA
   Change in employment Q2 2009-Q3 2009: 0.2
7. Jackson, MS
   Change in employment Q2 2009-Q3 2009: 0.2
8. Raleigh-Cary, NC
   Change in employment Q2 2009-Q3 2009: 0.1
9. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
   Change in employment Q2 2009-Q3 2009: 0.1
10. Madison, WI
    Change in employment Q2 2009-Q3 2009: 0.1
11. Syracuse, NY
    Change in employment Q2 2009-Q3 2009: 0.1

The MetroMonitor also compared the largest 100 metros’ peak employment quarter to the most recent quarter (Q3 2009), measuring the extent to which employment has recovered from the recession’s full impact. In that respect, only one metro area has seen employment growth from its peak until Q3: McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX whose employment has risen 1.4%. When you consider that the percent change in employment for the 100 largest metro areas was down -4.3% since the peak and down -4.6% for the entire U.S., there seems to be a lot more healing to go … but at least we seem to be on the right track.

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Keep in mind that while November’s numbers are encouraging, it’s going to take a while to bring those jobs back and it will be a slow build over a number of years.  Since the recession began in December 2007, the U.S. economy has lost approximately 8.2 million jobs. 

Job seekers should stay informed about areas of job growth and loss. Health care, which has added nearly 613,000 jobs since the start of the recession, remains the shining star of employment. Temporary help services, a category that lost more than -214,000 jobs in the first half of the year, has added 117,000 jobs since July, an indicator of a more optimistic hiring environment.  Alternately, the biggest losses in were seen in construction, manufacturing and information services.

Employers are more optimistic than they were six months ago, but they’re still cautious. Hiring will remain restrained as companies see how the market plays out. On CareerBuilder, we’re seeing improvement across most major markets over the last few months as well as in categories that have struggled earlier in the year such as IT and professional and business services.

Here’s how the largest sectors fared in November:

• Construction:  Lost -27,000 jobs in November and 1.8 million since the recession.  Job losses had averaged -117,000 per month during the 6 months ending in April and -63,000 per month from May through October.
• Manufacturing:  Lost -41,000 jobs in November and -2.1 million since the recession.  The average monthly decline over the past 5 months (-46,000) was much lower than the average monthly job loss for the first half of this year (-171,000).
• Retail:  There was little change in wholesale and retail trade employment in November. Within retail trade, department stores added 8,000 jobs over the month possibly attributed to holiday hiring.
• Information Industry: Fell by -17,000 in November. About half of the job loss occurred in its telecommunications component (-9,000).
• Health Care: Added 21,000 jobs in November and 613,000 since the start of the recession.
• Professional and Business Services: Grew by 86,000 jobs in November.
• Temporary Help Services: Added 52,000 jobs. Since July, temporary help services employment has risen by 117,000. 

Want to learn more about the changes occurring in employment? Watch Friday’s episode of PBS’s Nightly Business Report. It discusses the job numbers, catches up with a job seeker who found employment and features Rosemary Haefner, CareerBuilder’s Vice President of HR .

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So are there any bright spots?

Yes, actually. Health care added 29,000 jobs in October. Temporary employment services had steadily lost jobs in the beginning of the year, but in October they added 34,000 jobs. Companies have the need for more workers, but they’re cautious of adding new permanent employees. If the economy struggles again, they’d prefer to not renew temporary workers’ contracts rather than layoff a group of employees.

Two CareerBuilder.com experts were on TV to discuss the job numbers and the job outlook this morning.

First up, watch CEO Matt Ferguson on CNBC.

And senior career adviser Michael Erwin was on CBS 2 in Chicago. Watch that clip here.

You can also read the detailed, full report from the BLS on its site.

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