Over the last few months, it seems that all the economic indicators are improving. Here’s yet another encouraging one:

Job openings in the U.S. increased in December by the most in almost a year, showing employers are gaining confidence the economy will keep growing in 2012.

The number of positions waiting to be filled climbed by 258,000, the biggest gain since February 2011, to 3.38 million, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Excluding government agencies, openings at private employers climbed to the highest level since August 2008.

More openings mean companies may be looking beyond the European financial crisis and are making plans to expand this year as sales grow.

More and more, it’s looking like we may finally be headed towards a real recovery. That’s going to be wonderful after four years of economic pain. That said, we can’t afford to just sit back and count on the growing momentum to restore the economy. We need some serious structural changes to build a strong economy for the future.

We should get money back in the hands of middle-class consumers. When the richest 1 percent get all the gains from an improving economy, it hurts our economy. And while we’re at it, let’s invest in high technology to open up new industries for American business. If we don’t learn from our mistakes and make some major changes, we’re going to end up right back where we started.