New York, NY, February 24, 2006--The Conference Board Help-Wanted Advertising Index, a key measure of job offerings in major newspapers across America, dipped one point in January. The Index now stands at 37. It was 42 one year ago.
In the past three months, help-wanted advertising increased in five of the nine U.S. regions. Increases occurred in the Middle Atlantic (5.8%), South Atlantic (4.2%), New England (4.0%), East South Central (2.5%) and East North Central (2.2%) regions. The largest decline occurred in the Mountain (-23.6%) region.
Says Ken Goldstein, labor economist at The Conference Board: “Economic growth may be picking up in the first quarter but the labor market indicators aren’t showing much improvement through January. The economy only generated about 195,000 new jobs in January. Online ad volume did recover from a seasonal-related downturn but was no higher in January than in August. Print ad volume (which is seasonally adjusted) edged down in January. Initial unemployment claims improved in January but there is a question about how much of a role the warm weather played. The JOLTS data (Job Opening and Labor Turnover) remained relatively flat through December. Finally, consumer sentiment about job prospects over the next six months dipped in January. Thus, not only are the indicators suggesting modest gains in hiring, but consumers also do not think more new jobs will start opening up this spring. All of these data are consistent with readings from the Coincident Economic Index, which reflected moderate economic growth through January.”
Online job ads rebounded sharply in January to 2,162,000 new unduplicated online job ads posted for the calendar month, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series. The January total was up 529,000, an increase of one-third from the December low. January’s total was only slightly higher than the August 2005 monthly peak of 2,131,000. In January, there were 1.44 online job ads per 100 persons in the U.S. labor force, compared to 1.09 in December and 1.21 in November.
