In July there were 4,084,200 online advertised vacancies, a largely seasonal decline of 196,200 or 4.6 percent from the June level, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™ (HWOL). Online advertised vacancies continue to be up substantially (20%) over the year (July'06 — July'07). There were 2.65 advertised vacancies online for every 100 persons in the labor force in July.



"The monthly decline in July in large part reflects the July 4th holiday week when ad volume dropped," said Gad Levanon, Economist at The Conference Board. "Online job demand is running well above last year's level, indicating that the national labor market continues to hold up, but looking at The Conference Board Leading Economic Indicators, point to a little loss in momentum over the next few months. With the typical lagged response of the labor market, we may well see a moderation in national employment growth in the second half of the year while some of the hot local markets continue to show high ad rates and low unemployment."

THE NATIONAL PICTURE

In July, 2,609,300 or 64% of the 4,084,200 unduplicated online advertised vacancies were new ads that did not appear in June, while the remainder were reposted ads from the previous month. During July, both total and new ads declined by 5 percent from the previous month. Over the year (July'06 — July'07) total ads and new ads rose 20 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

The July figures reported in the Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™ reflect the sum of the number of unduplicated online job ads for each day from mid-June to mid-July and include the week of the July 4th holiday. This new series, which includes data from April 2005, does not have sufficient history to allow for seasonally adjusted monthly data.

In July, the number of online job ads declined in all of the 9 Census regions. The largest monthly decline was in the Middle Atlantic region (down 8 %). Except for the New England region which dipped 0.2%, over the year July'06 — July'07 the other 8 Census regions posted double-digit gains with the largest increases in the Mountain (30%), West North Central (30%) and West South Central (38%) regions.

STATE HIGHLIGHTS

* Alaska posts the highest ads rate in the country in July.

* Montana leads the nation with the lowest supply/demand rate for the third month in a row.

Alaska posted 4.69 vacancies for every 100 persons in the state labor force, the highest rate in the nation, moving up from second place last month. Montana (4.65) and Nevada (4.61) were close behind in the number of advertised vacancies when adjusted for the size of the state labor force.

Online advertised vacancies in California, the state with the largest labor force in the nation, totaled 662,600 in July. The volume of online advertised vacancies in California was significantly above the next highest states, Texas (345,500), New York (272,500) and Florida (250,600).

"Looking at the number of unemployed in relation to the number of advertised vacancies provides an indication of available job opportunities for the unemployed," said Levanon. Using the latest unemployment data available from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and computing the supply/demand ratio (unemployed/advertised vacancies), the states with the most favorable (e.g., lowest) supply/demand rates included Montana (0.62), Idaho (0.70), and Wyoming (0.75). There were 11 states where the supply/demand rate was less than 1.0 indicating that the number of unemployed workers was less than the number of online job ads.

States where the number of unemployed persons looking for work significantly exceeded the number of online advertised demand included Mississippi (4.97) and Michigan (4.47), Kentucky (3.41) and Arkansas (3.18).

OCCUPATIONAL FOCUS

* Over 365,000 ads posted for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations in July.

* Management and Business/Financial occupations account for more than 30% of online ads in New York and Illinois.

In July, occupations with substantial advertised online vacancies nationally were healthcare practitioner and technical workers (365,000) and management positions (358,700). "These are also, on average, among the highest paying occupations," said Levanon. According to the latest federal hourly wage data, wages average above $44 an hour for management positions and about $30 an hour for healthcare practitioners and technicians.

Also in high demand are business and financial occupations (290,700), office and administrative support (286,300) and computer and mathematical (284,300) occupations. Management and Business/Financial occupations account for more than 25% of all of the online ads classified by occupation. They were most concentrated in New York (32%) and Illinois (31%) where ads for these occupations were almost 1/3 of the online advertised vacancies.

SAN FRANCISCO IN THE LEAD FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS YEAR

* San Francisco ranks first with 6.52 ads per 100 persons in the labor force.

* Salt Lake City has the lowest supply/demand ratio in the nation.

The number of unemployed persons looking for work was less than the number of advertised vacancies in 23 of the 52 metro areas for which data is reported separately. The top ranking areas were Salt Lake City, Austin, Washington D.C., Denver and Phoenix.

Two of the nation's largest metropolitan areas, New York and Los Angeles, were first and second in the absolute volume of advertised job vacancies in July, with 276,400 and 233,300, respectively. The top two metro areas in terms of advertised vacancies per 100 persons in the local labor force were San Francisco (6.52) and San Jose (6.45), followed by Austin (5.95).