This is the bitter truth. Even if you don’t have a job, the jobs are out there, and you need to connect. According to the U.S. Labor Department report released on Tuesday, job openings at U.S. workplaces increased to 3.76 million in June, up from 3.66 million in May.

Compared to last year, overall job openings in U.S. rose by 16%, while private openings increased by 17%. However, in 2007, when the recession was supposed to have hit there were 4 million jobs openings posted in December. Despite the high number of job openings advertised in June, the number of unemployed still stood at 12.75 million. However, a rise in the number of openings means good times by November, since it typically takes about 1-3 months to fill a vacancy.

According to the data released by the Labor Department, layoffs were also down and quits and layoffs fell to 4.28 million in June from 4.46 million in May. Since everything is happily on a downward trend, hiring also fell from 4.46 million to 4.36 million. At the time when the recession began, the level of new hiring at this time of the year was about 5 million.

According to data from the Department of Labor, despite heavy odds, the economy has generated an average of 150,000 jobs per month in 2012, which is almost the same pace as that in 2011. Even then, unemployment rose from 8.2 percent in June to 8.3 percent in July.

The data for the month of June shows a decline in the number of available jobs in the local and federal government agencies and by retailers, while manufacturing, education, and healthcare and hotels and restaurants experienced growth in the number of openings.

Tuesday’s report, which is known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, measures gross hiring, which was highest in three and a half years in May, but fell in June.