"The September findings of the Monster Local Employment Index demonstrate a slight pick-up in online recruitment activity across a majority of the nation's largest metro areas," said Steve Pogorzelski, Executive Vice President, Global Sales and Customer Development at Monster Worldwide. "Online job availability remains up on the year in most markets, but is generally growing at a slower pace, suggesting loosening labor market conditions across the country."
Cincinnati, Detroit and Pittsburgh registered the strongest rate of increase in online job demand in September. Online opportunities in management; architecture and engineering; and computer and mathematical occupations surged in Cincinnati and Detroit last month. The healthcare industry also contributed, with the healthcare practitioners and technical category increasing more than any other category in Cincinnati last month, while in Detroit, the category is up 15 percent year-over-year. Over the quarter, online job availability for computer and mathematical occupations also increased in both cities. Meanwhile, online recruitment activity continued to soar in Pittsburgh, reflecting historically tight labor market conditions and high demand for technically skilled workers in both white-collar (IT, engineering) and blue-collar (installation, maintenance, and repair) occupations.
Online job availability also rose in Denver last month, continuing a three-month upward growth trend and bringing the Index for Denver to a near-record annual growth pace following a summertime slump. The increase in September was largely driven by higher local demand for education and skilled healthcare professionals. At the same time, Denver is also the top growth market for legal occupations over the year. Meanwhile, online demand for military specific occupations edged down further and is down 19 percent over the year, reflecting softer demand for state and local government jobs. Protective service occupations, another public sector-dominant category, also showed contraction in online opportunities, although no long-term downtrend has been established.
Online job demand in St. Louis edged up two percent during September, solidifying its rank as the fourth strongest Index market in terms of year-over-year growth for the sixth consecutive month. St. Louis is also the Index's top growth market year-over-year for office and administrative support occupations. The high volume of online job opportunities within the management; life, physical, and social sciences; and education, training, and library categories for St. Louis suggests considerable tightness in the area's labor market.
Following a sharp housing-driven slowdown in the first half of the year, online recruitment activity in Phoenix recovered over the summer months, and edged up further in September. As a result, Phoenix is once again an above-average Index market in terms of online job availability. Like many other Index markets, opportunities for workers in education and healthcare is driving online job availability in Phoenix, while IT and other service occupations are also in high demand. However, the stagnation seen over the past year reflects generally slow growth throughout the white- and blue-collar occupations, with perhaps a negative bias towards housing-related and government employment.
