Online Advertised Job Vacancies Fall Sharply in April

NEW YORK, April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- In April 2008 there were 3,649,900 online advertised job vacancies, a 16.4 percent decline from the April 2007 level, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series(TM) (HWOL) released today. This is the second consecutive month of over-the-year declines for the nation as whole. Even for the six states that posted gains, the pace of growth has slowed. In April, there were 2.4 advertised vacancies posted online for every 100 persons in the labor force, down from a high of 2.9 in April 2007.

"The weakness in online advertised vacancies evident over the last few months deepened in April and hiring is likely to continue to be lackluster into summer," said Gad Levanon, economist at The Conference Board. "April is a month when we normally see employers increasing their recruitment, but this year it actually declined. The lack of new job opportunities is contributing to consumers' feelings of uncertainty and is affecting their buying intentions. With increasing job worries and rising fuel prices, the percentage of respondents intending to take a vacation over the next six months fell to a 30-year low in the April Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey."

    THE NATIONAL -- REGIONAL PICTURE
    -- 2,591,500 new online job ads posted in April
    -- All Nine Census Regions post over-the-year declines in labor demand

In April, 2,591,500 of the 3,649,900 unduplicated online advertised vacancies were new ads that did not appear in March, while the remainder are reposted ads from the previous month. In April, a month expected to show a seasonal increase in labor demand, the number of total online advertised vacancies declined 2 percent while new ads rose 2 percent from March. The weak labor demand is clear in the April year-over-year numbers where total ads fell 16.4 percent and new ads dropped 10.6 percent. Both declines are the largest over-the-year declines since the HWOL series began in May 2005.

The monthly national decrease in advertised vacancies between March and April '08 reflected deterioration in ads in all nine Census regions. Additionally, the year-over-year (April '07 - April '08) growth rates in each of the nine Census regions turned negative in April.

    STATE HIGHLIGHTS
    -- Alaska posts the highest ads rate in the country for the eighth month
       in a row
    -- Delaware leads the nation with the lowest supply/demand rate

The number of advertised vacancies declined from April 2007 to April 2008 in 44 states (compared to 14 states in March 2008), and all the states experienced a slowing in the year-over-year growth rate. The March employment data released by the BLS indicates that all 50 states also experienced a slowing in their year-over-year growth rate of employment.

States where job seekers are continuing to see a large number of advertised vacancies includeAlaska,Nevada andMassachusetts.Alaska posted 4.45 online advertised vacancies for every 100 persons in the state labor force, the highest rate in the nation.Alaska has held the number one position for eight months in a row.Nevada (4.09) andMassachusetts (3.97) were close behind in the number of advertised vacancies when adjusted for the size of the state labor force. Half of the top 10 states with the highest ads rate are along the Eastern seaboard, and in addition toMassachusetts, include Delaware (3.96),Maryland (3.67),Vermont (3.53) andConnecticut (3.48).

Online advertised vacancies inCalifornia, the state with the largest labor force in the nation, totaled 491,400 in April. The ad volume in California dropped by over 231,000 ads, 32 percent below the April 2007 level. The volume of online advertised vacancies inTexas (309,900) was down 12 percent and ads inNew York (268,000) were down 15 percent from year ago levels.

"Although one cannot infer that the occupation or geographic location of unemployed persons matches the occupation or geographic location of the vacancies, looking at the number of unemployed in relation to the number of advertised vacancies provides an indication of available job opportunities for the unemployed," said Levanon. Using the latest unemployment data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) (March data) and computing the supply/demand ratio (unemployed/advertised vacancies), the states with the most favorable (e.g., lowest) supply/demand rates includedDelaware (0.93), Maryland (0.95) andArizona (1.02). This month, there were only two states where the number of advertised vacancies exceeded the number of unemployed (e.g., a supply/demand rate less than 1.0). This is down from last month, when four states had a supply/demand rate less than 1.0, and well below the peak of 11 states with a supply/demand rate less than 1.0 in July 2007. For the nation as a whole, the comparable supply/demand rate for March was 2.15, indicating that for every two unemployed people looking for work, there was only one online advertised vacancy.

States where the number of unemployed persons looking for work significantly exceeded the number of online advertised vacancies included Tennessee (3.06),Indiana (3.54),Kentucky (3.71),Michigan (4.93), and Mississippi (5.17).

OCCUPATIONAL FOCUS

-- Healthcare -- Still Leads Occupations in Highest Demand

"Many jobs in high demand are also, on average, among the highest paying occupations," said Levanon. Healthcare practitioners (238,500) and Management (195,800) are the two occupations with the most number of ads posted online. According to the latest federal hourly wage data, wages average about $30 for healthcare practitioners and above $44 an hour for management. Also in high demand are occupations in computer and mathematical (180,400), business and financial operations (173,000) and office and administrative support (170,500).

    METRO AREA HIGHLIGHTS
    -- Among Top 52 Metro Areas Only Honolulu, Milwaukee and Rochester Post
       Over the Year Gains

In April, 49 of the 52 metro areas for which data is reported separately posted a smaller number of advertised vacancies than last year. The deterioration in the job market in some of the nation's largest metro areas is further reflected in comparing the number of unemployed to the number of advertised vacancies. Since July 2007, the number of metro areas with a supply/demand rate of less than one has fallen from 23 areas to ten areas.

The top metro areas in March as measured by most advertised vacancies per 100 persons in the local labor force includedAustin (5.40),Milwaukee (5.34), San Jose (5.12),San Francisco (4.88), andDenver (4.64).

Note: The Help Wanted Online Data Series(TM) is a new developmental program with research and evaluation studies ongoing in a number of areas. The comparisons in the attached tables between total ads and total unemployed at the various geographic levels are overall counts and it cannot be inferred that the detailed occupation or geographic location of the unemployed matches the occupation or geographic location of the vacancy. Additionally, there may be differences in the way the unemployed person describes his occupation versus the way an employer may describe the same job. The Conference Board welcomes interested user feedback on this important new data set but also urges users to exercise caution in the analysis and interpretation of the data.

PROGRAM NOTES

The Conference Board Help-Wanted Online Data Series(TM) measures the number of new, first-time online jobs and jobs reposted from the previous month on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller job boards that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.

Like The Conference Board's long running Help-Wanted Advertising Index of print ads (which has been published since 1951), the new online series is not a direct measure of job vacancies. The level of ads in both print and online may change for reasons not related to overall job demand.

The Conference Board, as a standard practice with new data series, considers the estimates in The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series(TM) to be developmental. As a not-for-profit business research organization, The Conference Board is publishing the early years of this series for use by the media, analysts, researchers and the business community. Persons using this data are urged to review the information on the database and methodology available on our website and contact the economists listed at the top of this release with questions and comments.

Background information and technical notes on this new series are available at: http://www.conference-board.org/economics/helpwantedOnline.cfm. The underlying data for this series is provided by Wanted Technologies Corporation.

Additional information on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data used in this release can be found on the BLS website, www.bls.gov.

The Conference Board

Non-partisan and not-for-profit, The Conference Board is the world's leading business membership and research organization. The Conference Board produces The Consumer Confidence Index and the Leading Economic Indicators for the U.S. and other major nations. These barometers can have a major impact on the financial markets. The Conference Board also produces a wide range of authoritative reports on corporate governance and ethics, human resources and diversity, executive compensation and corporate citizenship. Our conference and council programs bring together more than 10,000 senior executives each year to share insights and learn from each other. Visit The Conference Board's award-winning website at www.conference-board.org.

WANTED Technologies Corporation.

WANTED is a leading supplier of real-time sales and business intelligence solutions for the media classified and recruitment industries. Using its proprietary On-Demand data mining, lead generation and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) integrated technologies, WANTED aggregates real-time data from thousands of online job boards, real estate and newspaper sites, as well as corporate Web sites on a daily basis.

WANTED's data is used to optimize sales and to implement marketing strategies within the classified ad departments of major media organizations, as well as by staffing firms, advertising agencies and human resources specialists. For more information, please visit: www.wantedtech.com.

SOURCE The Conference Board

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