New York, NY, April 28, 2006--The Conference Board Help-Wanted Advertising Index--a key measure of job offerings in major newspapers across America--dipped one point in March.
The Index now stands at 38. It was 39 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 declined in five of the nine U.S. regions. Largest declines occurred in the East South Central (-13.1%), West North Central (-6.7%) and East North Central (-5.6%) regions. The largest increases occurred in the West South Central (11.7%) and Mountain (7.6%) regions.
Says Ken Goldstein, labor economist at The Conference Board: "If the economy cools a little, under the unrelenting pressure of higher energy prices, the labor market might also cool. Even if energy prices were not going through the roof, the biggest road block would still be the cost of a new hire. Average hourly wage increases are picking up. Benefit costs (especially to cover health insurance premiums) are also moving higher. And pension costs remain high. Moreover, productivity growth has slowed, which means it cannot offset rising cost pressures the way it did last year."
New online job ads rose sharply in March, reaching 2,401,200, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™. The March level was 414,600, or 21 percent above the previous month and followed a small decline in February. In March, there were 1.60 online job ads per 100 persons in the U.S. labor force, compared with 1.33 in February 2006 and 1.44 in January.
The number of new ads in March was significantly higher than the number posted during the summer months, typically the peak period for hiring. Large numbers of new job ads are consistent with the robust employment numbers published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in recent months, but other labor market indicators are weaker. So the overall job picture is still a bit mixed.
