New York, October 26, 2006--The Conference Board Help-Wanted Advertising Index — a key measure of job offerings in major newspapers across America — was unchanged in September.
The Index currently stands at 30. It was 37 one year ago. The Conference Board is the global business research and membership organization.
In the last three months, help-wanted advertising declined in all nine U.S. regions. Steepest declines occurred in the West South Central (-17.5%), South Atlantic (-14.6%), and West North Central (-13.7%) regions.
Says Ken Goldstein, labor economist at The Conference Board: "The labor market remains cool going into the final months of the year. The latest data shows that job advertising in print was unchanged in September, while online ad volume dipped. These measures of want-ad volume had signaled a cooling off in labor demand as early as a year ago. Although higher gas prices and a cooling housing market softened the economy, inflation remains a fundamental concern. Consumers worry that it will stretch their household budgets (prices rising faster than incomes). Businesses worry that costs will rise faster than prices. That's why consumption and investment growth are slow, and hiring will not come back quickly."
New online job ads dropped slightly in September to 2,459,191, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™. The September level was 115,089 or 5 percent below the previous month. There were 1.62 online job ads per 100 persons in the U.S. labor force, compared with 1.71 in August 2006 and 1.55 in July.
