Help-Wanted Ad Index Inches UP

New York, NY, October 26, 2007-- The Conference Board Help-Wanted Advertising Index, key measure of job offerings in major newspapers across America, increased one point in September. The Index now stands at 24. It was 29 one year ago.

In the last three months, help-wanted advertising declined in eight of the nine U.S. regions. Largest declines occurred in the New England (-12.0%), East North Central (-10.8%), West North Central (-10.5%) and South Atlantic (-10.5%) regions.

Says Ken Goldstein, labor economist at The Conference Board: "The latest numbers on the job market suggest it was slower this summer than earlier this year, but not losing more steam heading into the fall and winter months. There are pockets of weakness around the country. Some areas have cooled off, but there is no sign that regional labor market problems are in the early stages of coalescing into a national downtrend. Simply put, the labor market is slow, but not slowing."

In September there were 4,270,000 online advertised vacancies, an increase of 165,200 or 4 percent from the August level, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series. There were 2.78 advertised vacancies online for every 100 persons in the labor force in September.