Wall Street Journal (06/10/14) Josh Zumbrun

The number of U.S. job openings rose to 4.5 million in April, a seven-year high, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s job-openings and labor-turnover survey. Meanwhile, the rate of layoffs was 1.2% and the quit rate was 1.8%, both flat from a month earlier. However, the pace of hiring has been sluggish. Some 4.7 million workers were hired in April, the same number as in March. Prior to the 2007-09 recession, hiring often topped five million a month. Some economists speculate that unemployed workers may lack the skills companies are looking for or that companies may be discriminating against the long-term unemployed.

U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (06/10/14)

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has released a new interactive training tool to help small businesses effectively identify hazards in the workplace. Employers and workers can virtually explore how to identify common workplace hazards in the manufacturing and construction industries. The tool explains the key components of the hazard identification process, which include information collection, observation of the workplace, investigation of incidents, employee participation, and prioritizing hazards.