New York, July 28--The Conference Board’s Help-Wanted Advertising Index – a key measure of job offerings in major newspapers across America – inched up in June. The Index now stands at 38, up from 37 in May. It was 38 one year ago.
In the last three months, help-wanted advertising declined in seven of the nine U.S. regions. Steepest declines occurred in the Mountain (-13.1%) and East South Central (-7.5%) regions.
Says Ken Goldstein, The Conference Board’s Labor Economist: “The labor market indicators turned soft in April and remained soft through June. Print want-ad volume was flat in April, edged lower in May, then recovered some of that lost ground in June. The data on initial unemployment claims point neither up nor down, even through the early weeks of July. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data (Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey) show the same lack of trend: job openings were essentially unchanged through May. These indications all point in the same direction: Hiring intentions have turned more cautious as the economy is poised to lose some steam in the second half of 2005.”
Online want-ad volume also does not appear to show a dramatically different pattern. The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™ – which made its debut this month – was flat. There were just over 2 million first-time, online job postings appearing on major Internet job boards in June. This figure is essentially unchanged from May and up from 1.8 million new job ads posted online in April.
