New York, NY, October 18, 2006--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 and followed a sharp increase in August.
The slight decrease in new ads for this month mirrors the 4 percent decrease reported in September 2005. This 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. Over the year September 2005 to September 2006, new online job ads increased 20.6 percent.
"August tends to be a peak month for job ads, and September's modest decline is well in line with the seasonal downward trend we would expect," said Gad Levanon, Economist at The Conference Board. "The good news is that the September number is not signaling any significant weakening in the labor market."
The monthly figures reported in the Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™ are the sum of the number of unduplicated new online job ads for each day of the calendar month. This new series includes data from April 2005 and is not seasonally adjusted.
New Release: The Conference Board will release an expanded version of The Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™ for the month of October on Monday, October 30, 2006. With the October release, data for the 50 states as well as 52 of the country's largest metropolitan areas will be available. For the first time, data will be available on labor demand (advertised vacancies) that can be viewed in conjunction with the federal release of monthly unemployment data reported for the state and metro areas. In addition, data will be provided for online ads in 22 major occupational categories. For a full explanation of the changes in this Series and for the earliest view of the current figures, news media are invited to participate in The Conference Board Help-Wanted Online Data Series webcast (Monday, October 30 at 10:30 a.m. ET) by registering with Frank Tortorici at (212) 339-0231.
New online job ads postings decreased in all nine census regions in September compared with the August level. The largest declines for the month were in the East South Central region (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee) and the New England region (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont), down 7 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
The remaining seven census regions each declined between 3 and 6 percent. After eight consecutive months with the highest number of new jobs per 100 persons, the New England region surrendered its lead to the Pacific region, which had 2.53 new online jobs per 100 persons in the labor force. The East South Central region, however, continues to have the lowest (0.94) activity.
Comparing September 2006 with September 2005, the number of new job ads was up in all census regions except East South Central (down 1 percent). The largest gains were concentrated in the west and southwestern parts of the country with the Pacific region up 30 percent and West South Central up 44 percent.
Other areas with substantial year-over-year gains in online job ads were the Mountain and West North Central regions (27 percent and 20 percent, respectively). More modest year-over-year increases were posted in the East North Central region (Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin), up 10 percent, and the Middle Atlantic region (New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania), up 11 percent.
