The Conference Board Help-Wanted Advertising Index - a key measure of job offerings in major newspapers across America — dipped one point in November. The Index now stands at 21. It was 29 one year ago.

In the last three months, help-wanted advertising declined in all nine U.S. regions. Steepest declines occurred in the Pacific (-12.8%), Mountain (-12.5%), and West North Central (-12.4%) regions.

Says Ken Goldstein, labor economist at The Conference Board: "The forward indicators of labor market activity offer little hope that the labor market will be spared. The latest readings on print want-ad volume show some slowing in recent months, after slowly losing steam through the spring and summer. Data for online advertising also point to reduced job recruitment efforts. Initial unemployment claims have edged higher. It's not good news when more people are signing up for unemployment checks, and the average length of unemployment is lengthening. The JOLTS data (Job Openings and Labor Turnover) also showed remarkably little change through October. These forward indicators of labor market activity are consistent with slowing growth."

Online Advertised Job Vacancies Dip in November

In November there were 4,072,600 online advertised vacancies, a decrease of 89,100 or -2.1 percent from the October level, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series. There were 2.65 advertised vacancies online for every 100 persons in the labor force in November.