New York, NY, March 30, 2006--The Conference Board Help-Wanted Advertising Index – a key measure of job offerings in major newspapers across America – rose one point in February.
The Index now stands at 39. It was 41 one year ago.
The Conference Board, the global business research and membership organization, examines each month help-wanted ads in 51 newspapers and online.
In the last three months, help-wanted advertising increased in eight of the nine U.S. regions. Largest increases occurred in the West South Central (5.3%), West North Central (4.5%) and South Atlantic (4.0%) regions. The only decline occurred in the East South Central (-6.1%) region.
Says Ken Goldstein, labor economist at The Conference Board: “Business is increasingly concerned about the impact of new hiring (in terms of wages, as well as health and pension benefits) in relation to corporate pricing power. The good news on the inflation front is actually a negative for business. It elevates the concern about rising costs, not offset by rising prices. That keeps hiring plans on the slow burner, as reflected in print advertising volume as well as in the other forward indicators of labor market activity.”
There were 1,987,000 new online job ads posted in February, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series. The February number represents a drop of 175,000 jobs (8.1 percent) from January, which was up sharply from December. January and February combined show that the average number of new online job ads for the first two months of 2006 is in line with the monthly levels in the late summer of 2005. Adjusting the number of ads for the size of the labor force, there were 1.33 online job ads per 100 persons in the U.S. labor force in February and 1.44 in January 2006. This was similar to August 2005 (1.43) and July 2005 (1.32).
