New York, NY, September 21, 2005--The number of new online job ads rose to 2,130,000 in the month of August, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series. This latest monthly figure is up over 4 percent from early summer (June 2005), with gains in 8 of the 9 Census regions.
Ken Goldstein, labor economist at The Conference Board, noted that the August data largely reflect the job ad situation prior to Hurricane Katrina which struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi on August 29.
San Francisco and Salt Lake City, with over three new online ads per 100 persons in the labor force, posted the highest number of ads when adjusted by the labor force of the local area. Labor force participants include employed persons as well as those actively seeking work. Expressing job ads in terms of the size of the local labor force provides more perspective on the numbers, Goldstein notes.
While the New England, Mountain and Pacific regions have about two new online job ads per 100 persons in the labor force, the West South Central and East South Central remain at half that rate -– with one new online job ad per 100 in the labor force. Within regions, the new metropolitan data also reveal notable differences. In the New England area, Boston posts almost three (2.88) new ads per 100 in the labor force, while there are slightly less than two ads per 100 in Hartford, Connecticut (1.93) and Providence, Rhode Island (1.83). Differences within and between regions reflect both variations in the propensity to use online technology for job searches as well as job vacancies. The West South Central region includes Austin, Texas, with almost two ads per 100 (1.88), compared to New Orleans with less than one ad (0.61) per 100 persons in the labor force. “August data for the Gulf Coast were, no doubt, held down in part by the impending hurricane,” said Goldstein. “Any impact from Hurricane Katrina’s actual destruction would not significantly impact this data.”
The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series measures the number of new, first-time online job ads posted on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller job boards that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.
