Job openings are back to where they were a year ago. But the labor market needs more to recover.

The tepid increase followed a decline of 227,000 jobs in December, the first loss since April.

The figures suggest employers have rehired roughly all the workers they can afford to after laying off more than 22 million.

Employers added 245,000 jobs, many fewer than the previous month. The economy is still down nearly 10 million jobs since February.

U.S. employers added a modest 245,000 jobs as the spread of coronavirus continues to intensify.

It’s employees of small businesses who are most at risk, according to one payroll processor.

The unemployment rate is down, and more people are returning to the labor force. But finding a job isn’t easy.

More Americans are returning to the labor market. But more are also joing the ranks of the long-term unemployed.

The decline in unemployment has slowed since an early rebound from the first wave of COVID-19 shutdowns.

Eight months after the virus struck, the U.S. economy still has recovered barely half the that were lost to the pandemic.