The Labor Department has released its job openings and worker quits data for December, showing vacancies edging up to nearly 11 million while capping a year that set new records for the number of openings and the number of American workers quitting their jobs amid the “Great Resignation.” In its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), the Labor Department reported that job openings, which are a measure of labor demand, rose by 150,000 to 10.925 million on the last day of December. While lower than the record-high of 11.098 million vacancies recorded in July, it’s a historically elevated reading that suggests U.S. employers stepped up their search for workers at the end of the year despite the Omicron surge. The release of December’s vacancies numbers also confirmed that 2021 was the biggest year or record for job openings in the United States, with a total of 116.9 million, …