Report: Online Job Ads Up 4 percent in September (Includes 6 Charts)

There were 4,270,000 online advertised vacancies in Sept., an increase of 165,200 - or 4 percent - from August, according to The Conference Board (via MarketingCharts). Online advertised vacancies were up 17.5 percent from Sept. ‘06 to Sept. ‘07, and there were 2.78 advertised vacancies online in Sept. for every 100 persons in the labor force, according to the data.

“The growth rate in the number of online ads has moderated in recent months from what we were seeing in early 2007, and some of the growth is reflective of the continued shift to online job advertising,” said Gad Levanon, Economist at The Conference Board.

“Looking regionally, the more ‘mature’ areas in terms of internet usage, like the West and East coasts, where online job advertising has been popular for some time, the rate of growth has slowed. In many of the smaller metro areas, and where online job advertising has lagged behind the largest metro areas, the growth rates continue to be very strong.”

The following are among the Conference Board’s Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series findings.

The National/Regional Picture

In September, 2,934,100 of the 4,270,000 unduplicated online advertised vacancies were new ads that did not appear in August, while the remainder are reposted ads from the previous month.

The 4 percent increase in total Sept. ads reflected a 6 percent increase in new ads and 1 percent increase in reposted ads. Over the year (September’06 - September’07) total ads and new ads rose 17.5 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively.

Online job demand in September continued to be above last year’s level in eight of the nine Census regions, but there were substantial variations from region to region:

• The New England region, which continues to have one of the highest ads rates (3.65 ads per 100 persons in the regional labor force) declined for the second month (-5 percent in September and -6 percent in August).
• The Pacific region, which includes California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska, also has a high ads rate (3.62 ads per 100 labor force), and was up a modest 8 percent over the year.
• The Mountain region, which has the highest ads rate in the nation (3.86), was up 29 percent from September ‘06 to September ‘07, substantially above the national average.
• The central regions of the country experienced the largest over-the-year gains with the West South Central region leading (up 43 percent), followed by the East North Central region (up 28 percent), and West North Central region (up 25 percent). The South Atlantic region was up 13 percent.

State Highlights

• Alaska posted 4.7 vacancies for every 100 persons in the state labor force, the highest rate in the nation, moving up from second place last month.

• Nevada (4.64) and Colorado (4.52) were close behind in the number of advertised vacancies when adjusted for the size of the state labor force.
• Other states in the top five included Oregon (4.41) and Arizona (4.29).
• Online advertised vacancies in California, the state with the largest labor force in the nation, totaled 666,000 in September.

• The volume of online advertised vacancies in California was significantly above the next highest states, Texas (374,500), New York (289,700) and Florida (247,800).
• The states with the most favorable (e.g., lowest) supply/demand rates (unemployed/advertised vacancies) included Montana (0.50), Idaho (0.69), Wyoming (0.73), and Delaware (0.75). Montana led the nation with the lowest supply/demand rate for the fifth month in a row.
• There were 14 states where the supply/demand rate was less than 1.0, indicating that the number of unemployed workers was fewer than the number of online job ads.
• For the nation as a whole, the comparable supply/demand rate was 1.73 with the number of unemployed persons exceeding the number of online advertised vacancies.
• States where the number of unemployed persons looking for work significantly exceeded the number of online advertised demand included Mississippi (4.46) and Michigan (4.25), Kentucky (3.23) and Indiana (3.10).

Occupational Focus

• Over 334,500 ads were posted for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations in September.
• Management and Business/Financial occupations account for more than 30 percent of online ads in New York and Illinois.
• Healthcare practitioners and technical workers (334,500) and management positions (303,400) remained top occupations with a significant number of ads posted online.

• According to the latest federal hourly wage data, wages average above $44 an hour for management positions and about $30 an hour for healthcare practitioners and technicians.
• Also in high demand are office and administrative support (268,500), business and financial occupations (257,300), and computer and mathematical (250,300) occupations.

Metro Areas

• Austin, TX ranks first with 6.75 ads per 100 persons in the labor force.
• Salt Lake City has the lowest supply/demand ratio in the nation.
• The top metro areas in September with around 6 advertised vacancies per 100 persons in the local labor force included Austin (6.75) and San Jose (6.25) and San Francisco (5.98).
• Those three are also among the top 10 areas in the country where the number of unemployed persons was below the number of online advertised vacancies (supply/demand rate).
• Salt Lake City was number one with a 0.50 supply/demand rate.
• The number of unemployed persons looking for work was fewer than the number of advertised vacancies in 9 of the 52 metro areas for which data is reported separately.
• 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 September, with 297,700 and 241,600, respectively.

Note: The Help Wanted Online Data Series is a new developmental program with research and evaluation studies ongoing in a number of areas. The comparisons in the attendant 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.