US job openings hover near record high in February

[WASHINGTON] US job openings slipped in February, but remained near record highs as companies continued to struggle to find scarce workers.

Job openings, a measure of labour demand, fell 17,000 to 11.266 million on the last day of February, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or Jolts report on Tuesday.

Despite the second straight monthly decline, job openings were not too far from a record high of 11.448 million set in December. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 11 million vacancies.REUTERS