More job ads posted online in May
Posted on 01. Jun, 2009 by jay in Career Advice, Job Hunting News
The number of job opportunities advertised online grew by a quarter of a million to 3,367,000 in May according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted Data Series (TM). This is the first gain since October 2008 when the number of ads increased only 21,000 and the largest increase since October 2006. Despite the May increase, the number of job openings advertised online remains 25 percent or more than 1.1 million jobs lower than last year. The Conference Help-Wanted Online Data Series 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 that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.
The number of advertised opportunities rose in all four regions of the U.S. during May. For many of the 43 states posting gains, May was the first increase after months of steady declines in demand for labor. Unfortunately, the number of unemployed persons continues to outnumber advertised vacancies among the nation’s 20 most populous states. A majority (47 out of 52) of top metropolitan areas also experienced declines in the number of vacancies advertised, compared to the previous year.
In addition, demand remains well below levels of a year ago for most occupations. More than half of the increase reported in May were in Management (43,600 vacancies), Office/Administrative Support Services (41,600 vacancies), Computer/Mathematical Science (34,800 vacancies) and Health Practitioners/Technical occupations (20,100 vacancies).
“The May bounce in labor demand is a very welcome sign,” said Gad Levanon, Senior Economist at The Conference Board. “April and May are both months when businesses typically step up their demand for workers. This year, while April was weak, by May employers were placing ads for workers in numerous locations across the nation. Over the last four months, there are now about a half a dozen states where the drop in labor demand shows signs of leveling off and another handful of states show some very moderate increases. Labor demand typically leads the trend in both employment and unemployment, so positive signals on labor demand are always important. Even with the current positive signs, the likely outlook is for unemployment to continue to rise and employment to fall at more modest levels throughout the summer. In April (the latest unemployment data until the May numbers are released Friday), there were 10.6 million more unemployed workers than advertised vacancies.”
Metropolitan Area Highlights
Honolulu led the nation in labor demand growth with 13,900 advertised vacancies, up more than 1,300 or 29.5 percent from last year’s levels, according to The Conference Board survey. Although Oklahoma City saw more online job ads (19,300), the increase over the previous year was 1,900. Virginia Beach followed closely with an increase of 1,400 advertised job vacancies, bringing that metro area’s total online job ads to 22,100 in May. Modest gains were also posted in Providence, RI (300) and Baltimore, MD (100). Among the three metro areas having the largest overall numbers of online job ads, levels remain close to 25 percent below May 2008 in New York and Los Angeles while the May level in Washington, D.C. is off 2.4 percent or 3,700 from last year.
The number of unemployed persons exceeded the number of advertised vacancies in all 52 of the metropolitan areas surveyed. Washington, D.C. and Salt Lake City, UT reported the most favorable supply/demand rates with the number of job seekers only slightly exceeding the number of advertised vacancies. The metro areas having the worst supply/demand ratios include:
- Riverside 11.2 unemployed person to every job vacancy advertised
- Detroit 10.6
- Sacramento 6.3
- Portland 6.2
- Louisville 5.8
- Los Angeles 5.6
- Miami 5.6
- Chicago 5.5
- Tampa 5.3
- Providence 5.2
- Atlanta 5.1
- and Rochester 5.1
Regional and State Highlights
At the state level, the good news is that New Jersey, Florida, Georgia, Maryland and Hawaii are among the states where declining labor demand has either leveled off or shown small improvements over the past four months. The number of advertised vacancies rose in May in all four regions of the country, however, among the 20 most populous states unemployment (supply) continues to outpace the number of job vacancies advertised (demand) at rates ranging from a high of 9 to 1 in Michigan to a low of 2 to 1 in Maryland.
“Over the last few months, we have not seen any big increases in labor demand, but in some states there seems to be clear signs that employers are advertising again for workers,” Levanon said. “In addition, about one fourth of the states are showing some signs of labor demand bottoming.”
The May increase of 76,800 in the Southern region reflected increases in advertised job vacancies in all the largest states. In a sign that the drop in the labor market may be stabilizing, a four-month trend has developed in Florida, Georgia and Maryland. It was Virginia, however, that experienced the greatest increase in advertised opportunities with 11,800, followed by Texas with 11,300, Maryland with 11,200, Georgia with 9,400 and North Carolina with 5,100. Advertised job vacancies also increased modestly in Kentucky (3,200), West Virginia (2,100), Arkansas (1,800), Oklahoma (800) and Louisiana (100).
In the Northeast, the labor demand trend turned slightly positive in New Jersey where 6,000 more job vacancies were advertised in May bringing the state’s total increase to more than 14,000 over the past four months. New York experienced the sharpest increase, rising 20,300 in May followed by Massachusetts (10,000) and Pennsylvania (7,900). Advertised opportunities dropped a modest 900 in Maine during May.
Out West, May marked the first month of increasing labor demand in all but four of the most populous states. California and Arizona, which have both shown strong downward trends since the summer of 2007, experienced their first major increases in May. California’s advertised job opportunities rose 30,700 while Arizona’s rose a more modest 9,100. Declining labor trends in Colorado and Washington, though not as long, were also slightly reversed as the number of advertised opportunities rose 11,600 and 7,000 in those states respectively. The number of advertised vacancies increased 1,500 in Hawaii and 1,300 in Oregon. Both states have experienced flat or moderate increases since January.
The Midwest, which experienced an increase of 36,200 job ads in May, was also the only region to experience declines in some of the most populous states. The number of advertised vacancies in Michigan declined 2,100 while Wisconsin dropped 1,800. The largest increase in advertised job opportunities was in Illinois (8,400) followed by Minnesota (5,300) and Missouri (2,600) Ohio, where drops in labor demand have leveled off during the last few months, experienced a modest increase of 800 advertised job vacancies in May.
Occupational Highlights
According to The Conference Board, there is a significant difference in the number of unemployed persons seeking positions among occupations having the largest numbers of online advertised job vacancies. Among the top ten occupations advertised online, there were more vacancies than people seeking positions in healthcare (0.3) and computer and mathematical science (0.6). Job seekers in these fields can find a variety of opportunities advertised on such national job boards as Dice.com as well as local job boards like Nvnusres.com.
Among other occupations, the number of unemployed outnumbered the number of advertised opportunities. There were four job seekers for every sales related opportunity advertised, and more than five job seekers for every office or administrative job advertised. At the management level, there were almost two people seeking a job for every job advertised.
The Conference Board is a gloable, independent business-membership and research association working in the public interest. It is a non-advocacy, not-for-profit entity.