December 4, 2006…Total online job ads declined by 119,800 or 3 percent to 3,711,300 in November, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™ released today. There were 2.4 advertised vacancies online for every 100 persons in the labor force in November. The monthly decrease in advertised job vacancies was reflected in 39 of the 50 states and was widespread across most major metropolitan areas. Over the year, online advertised vacancies increased 15% for the nation as a whole.
“The year over year growth rate in online advertised vacancies has held steady during the last few months,” said Gad Levanon, Economist at The Conference Board. “Advertised vacancies are not signaling any big shifts in the labor market in the near future. Employment growth is slower now than at the beginning of the year, however our data does not suggest that it will slow further.”
The 3,711, 000 unduplicated online advertised vacancies in November include 2,396,000 new ads that did not appear in October, as well as reposted ads from the previous month. During November, total ads dipped 3 percent and new ads declined 5 percent. Over the year (November’05 – November’06) total ads and new ads rose 15 percent and 16 percent, respectively.
The monthly decrease of 119,800 in total ads reflects a decrease in postings in most states. These declines more than offset modest increases seen in 10 states. In one state (Kansas) the number of advertised vacancies remained unchanged. Monthly declines were greatest in the Pacific, East South Central and New England regions, and included decreases in states such as California (-21,800), Washington (-19,700), Massachusetts (-13,100), Maryland (-6,500), and Oregon (-5,900). Major metropolitan areas contributing to these declines were Seattle (-8,900), Boston (-11,200), and San Diego (-10,900), Portland (-3,600) and Washington, D.C. (-3,100).
Modest increases in advertised vacancies over the month were reported in South Dakota
(+3,500); Florida (+3,400), which includes Miami (+5,700); and New York (+3,000), where gains in New York City (+8,500), Buffalo (+300), and Rochester (+900) were offset, in part, by declines in other areas of the state.
Over the year, the only region to report a decline was the East South Central region
(-8%). Across the nation, states with the largest over the year gains in advertised vacancies were Louisiana (+47%), Maine (+41%), Minnesota (+34%), and Oklahoma (+31%). Metropolitan areas with the fastest over the year growth were heavily concentrated in areas where labor markets were disrupted by the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes; New Orleans (+138%), Oklahoma City (+73%), and Austin, TX (+48%).
California and Texas, ranked #1 and #2 in ad volume, but California had over twice the number of ads as Texas
Rhode Island and Massachusetts lead the nation with nearly 5 advertised vacancies for every 100 persons in the labor force
Virginia, Wyoming, and Utah are among the states where advertised job vacancies are greater than the number of unemployed workers.
Online advertised vacancies in California, the state with the largest labor force in the nation, totaled 636,600 in November. The volume of online advertised vacancies in California was significantly above the next highest states, Texas (277,900), New York (271,800), Florida (264,800) and Illinois (175,500).Labor demand dips in 39 out of 50 states and across most major metropolitan areas
Job demand is strongest in Management and Business/Financial occupationsManagers, finance, office support in high demand
Healthcare jobs also in high demand and make up over 10% of all online ads in some states
In November, the occupations with the most advertised online vacancies nationally were Management (410,300), Business and Financial Operations (305,300), followed by Office and Administrative Support (297,200).
“Not only are these jobs in demand, but many of them are high paying jobs,” said Mr. Levanon.
In November there were 335,600 online advertised vacancies for healthcare jobs including 295,300 for Healthcare Practitioners and Technical occupations and 40,300 Health Support occupations.
“Healthcare workers are clearly in demand across the nation,” Levanon noted, “with advertised vacancies in every state.” In terms of the sheer volume of healthcare ads, California (53,000),) Florida (31,700), and Texas (25,300) were the top states. Metro areas with the largest demand included Angeles (15,700), New York City (14,200), and Boston (12,200), followed by Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco all of which had just over 10,000 ads posted this month for healthcare positions.
SAN JOSE, SAN FRANCISCO LEAD MAJOR METRO AREAS
Washington, D.C. has the lowest supply/demand ratio in the nation and is ranked third in ads rate behind San Jose and San Francisco
New York and Los Angeles lead all metro areas in total advertised vacancies
The top 10 metro areas where the number of unemployed persons looking for work was less than the number of advertised vacancies includes a wide range of areas across the nation --- Washington, DC, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Boston, Seattle, Phoenix, Tampa, and Austin.
Two of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, New York and Los Angeles, were first and second in the absolute volume of advertised job vacancies in November, with 274,700 and 231,600, respectively. The top two metro areas in terms of advertised vacancies per 100 persons in the local labor force were San Jose (6.24) and San Francisco (5.72), followed by Washington, DC (5.38), and Boston (5.16).
The Conference Board Help-Wanted Online Data Series™ measures the number of new, first-time online jobs posted 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™ 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, Inc. CareerBuilder.com provides financial support for the series.
Additional information on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data used in this release can be found on the BLS website, www.bls.gov.
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.
CareerBuilder.com is the nation’s largest online job site with more than 20 million unique visitors and over 1 million jobs. The company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 550 partners that include 165 newspapers and leading portals such as MSN and America Online. For more information about CareerBuilder.com products and services, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com.
WANTED Technologies Inc.
Founded in 1997, WANTED Technologies Inc. is a leading provider of real-time sales and business intelligence. Through its proprietary data mining and aggregation technology, WANTED delivers concise, accurate and actionable data, aimed at helping to increase sales and profitability for its clientele throughout North America. WANTED was recently bestowed the Model of Excellence Award by the InfoCommerce Group in recognition of online business innovation. For more information, visit www.wantedtech.com.