The Labor Department issued its Jobs Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) today, as reported by CNBC.com. Here are some available stats:

• Business and government advertised 3.4 million jobs at the end of October, up 12% from the previous month.
• The number of available jobs increased by about 1 million or 44% since July 2009. This was well below the 4.4 million advertised in December 2007.
• There were on average 4.4 workers for each available job in October, down slightly from the 4.9 the previous month.
• In 2007 the number stood at 1.8 workers for each available job.

Tuesday's positive economic data point -- and it's a modest one, but we'll take it -- comes from the U.S. Labor Department: there were 5 potential applicants for each job opening in April, down from 6.2 applicants in March.

The reduction, part of the Labor Department's monthly job openings and turnover survey, also confirmed an uptrend in job openings. Even so, investors should keep in mind that 'job openings' do not mean 'hirings,' and the latest survey confirmed that hiring was basically flat in April compared to March. However, hiring is up about 12% compared to a year ago.

Further, the 4.3 million hirings in April minus the month's 4 million total separations roughly confirms the 290,000 net pay-roll increase in April.

Unemployment has been a major concern for Americans over the past couple of years, but we get a bit of good news that job openings rose by 7.6% in January, compared with December.

Indicating that employers are at least starting to hire again, new job openings rose to 2.7 million. This is the highest level since back in February 2009.

At the height of the financial crisis, Bank of America (BAC) acquired Merrill Lynch for $50 billion. Over the past year, Merrill's ranks have thinned from 18,000 down to 15,000.

Merrill's "thundering herd," as it was once known, was a powerhouse dealing largely with retail customers. Interestingly enough, even with the advent of electronic trading, many wealthy clients prefer to deal directly with a broker. B of A has a big book of 17 million "mass affluent" customers who need advice and services. "Mass affluent" customers are those whose income is between $100,000 and $1 million in investable assets.