In August there were 4,104,800 online advertised vacancies, an increase of 20,600 or 0.5 percent from the July level, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series(TM) (HWOL) released.

Online advertised vacancies were up (12%) over the year (August'06-August'07). There were 2.65 advertised vacancies online for every 100 persons in the labor force in August. "The August numbers point to a continued softening in labor demand," said Gad Levanon, Economist at The Conference Board. "August is typically a month when businesses step up hiring. Although this online data series does not have enough history to seasonally adjust the monthly data, online job demand was virtually unchanged in August which is below what one would expect. While there are occupations and industries, like healthcare, where demand for labor remains high, August was a month when The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index also indicated that Americans were feeling the softening of general business conditions and the labor market."

THE NATIONAL PICTURE

In August, 2,780,400 of the 4,104,800 unduplicated online advertised vacancies were new ads that did not appear in July, while the remainder were reposted ads from the previous month. The 0.5 percent monthly increase in total ads reflected a 6 percent increase in new ads that offset the decline in reposted ads. Over the year (August'06 - August'07) total ads and new ads rose 12 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

Online job demand in August continued to be above last year's level in eight of the nine Census regions, but there were substantial variations from region to region. The largest over the year increases were in the West South Central region, which includes Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma (32%), followed by the Mountain and East North Central regions (both up 24%). The Pacific and South Atlantic regions posted more modest gains (5% and 7%, respectively) while the New England region was down 6 percent from year ago levels. The New England region, however, continues to have one of the highest ads rate (3.58 ads per 100 persons in the regional labor force) exceeded only by the Mountain region (3.7 ads per 100 labor force).

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

STATE HIGHLIGHTS

- Nevada posts the highest ads rate in the country in August.
- Montana leads the nation with the lowest supply/demand rate for the fourth month in a row.

Nevada posted 4.56 vacancies for every 100 persons in the state labor force, the highest rate in the nation moving up from second place last month. Alaska (4.46) and Montana (4.39) were close behind in the number of advertised vacancies when adjusted for the size of the state labor force. Other states in the top five included Oregon (4.33) and Colorado (4.3). Online advertised vacancies in California, the state with the largest labor force in the nation, totaled 647,100 in August. The volume of online advertised vacancies in California was significantly above the next highest states, Texas (347,500), New York (284,200) and Florida (241,900).

"Although one cannot infer that the occupation or geographic location of unemployed persons matches the occupation or geographic location of the vacancies, 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 (0.49), Idaho (0.65), Wyoming (0.77), and Utah (0.78). There were 9 states where the supply/demand rate was less than 1.0, indicating that the number of unemployed workers was fewer than the number of online job ads. For the nation as a whole the comparable supply/demand rate was 1.85 with the number of unemployed persons exceeding the number of online advertised vacancies.

States where the number of unemployed persons looking for work significantly exceeded the number of online advertised demand included Mississippi (5.13) and Michigan (4.76), Arkansas (3.40) and Kentucky (3.29).

OCCUPATIONAL FOCUS

- Over 336,200 ads posted for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations in August.
- Management and Business/Financial occupations account for more than 30% of online ads in New York and Illinois.

Healthcare practitioners and technical workers (336,200) and management positions (312,700) continue to be top occupations with a significant number of ads posted online. "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 office and administrative support (271,500), business and financial occupations (261,900), and computer and mathematical (259,400) occupations. 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 August, with 291,600 and 235,100, respectively.