The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report on Tuesday. Job openings rose to 5.607 million in December from 5.346 million in November. November's figure was revised down from 5.431 million.
The number of job openings climbed for total private (5.086 million) and for government (521,000) in December from November.
The hires rate was 3.7% in December.
Total separations increased to 5.072 million in December from 4.962 million in November.
The JOLTS report is one of the Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's favourite labour market indicators.