Regional and State Highlights
- Advertised vacancies up in 10 of the 50 States in April
- No State has a favorable Supply/Demand rate (fewer unemployed persons than advertised vacancies)
There are some brighter areas in the Northeast and South including New Jersey, New York, Virginia and North Carolina, where the number of advertised vacancies was up in April. The overall national picture, however, continued to be negative in April, with online labor demand declining in all four regions as declines more than offset the limited increases. The most populous states in the Midwest and West continued to post decreases.
The 47,400 drop in the West reflected continued declines in all of its most populous states. California and Arizona have shown downward trends since Summer 2007 and also posted declines in April - California (-18,900) and Arizona (-4,500). Labor demand in Colorado and Washington began to turn down in Summer 2008 and was down 6,700 and 5,000, respectively in April.
The 45,200 decline in the Midwest region was also attributed to declines in all of its most populous states. Minnesota experienced the steepest drop (-9,400) and was followed by Illinois (-8,100), Ohio (-2,800), Wisconsin (-1,800), Michigan (-1,300) and Missouri (-900).
The 19,100 drop in the South reflected declines in all of its most populous states but Virginia (+4,500) and North Carolina (+100). Florida, which showed a modest gain last month, was down 6,300 in April. Georgia was down 5,600, followed by Texas (-1,400) and Maryland (-800).
Among the larger states in the Northeast region, New Jersey and New York showed modest gains of 3,800 and 3,400 respectively. Massachusetts declined by 5,600, and Pennsylvania declined by 5,200.
Among the states with smaller populations, states with modest declines in April were Mississippi (-100), Hawaii (-200), Vermont (-300), Kansas (-300), Wyoming (-500), Oklahoma (-500), New Hampshire (-600), and Alabama (-700).
The downward trend in employer demand coupled with the monthly increases in unemployment is creating a widening gap in the supply/demand balance in most States and making it increasingly difficult for the unemployed to find jobs. The Supply/Demand rate for the U.S. has been increasing and in March (the latest month for which unemployment numbers are available) was at 4.05, up from 3.72 in January, and has now surpassed 4 unemployed for every online advertised vacancy.
The highest Supply/Demand rate is in Michigan (8.47), or over 8 unemployed people for every advertised vacancy. Other states where there are over 5 unemployed for every advertised vacancy include Mississippi (7.04), Indiana (7.03), Kentucky (6.90), North Carolina (6.59), South Carolina (6.09), Tennessee (5.79), Oregon (5.70), Ohio (5.69), California (5.58), Florida (5.41), and Georgia (5.24).
It should be noted that the Supply/Demand rates only provide a measure of relative tightness of the individual State labor markets and does not suggest that the occupations of the unemployed directly align with the occupations of the advertised vacancies.
OCCUPATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
- Labor demand down over 30 percent from year ago levels for a wide range of occupations
- Job demand is hard hit in Architecture & Engineering; Production; Transportation & Material Moving; Business & Finance; Office & Administrative Support; Management; Computer & Mathematical Jobs; and Legal Jobs
The widespread nature of the downturn in the economy remains evident in the large number of occupations where online advertised vacancies in April were 30 percent or more below levels in April 2008. The list of occupations experiencing severe declines in labor demand included both high-paying occupations like Management and Legal where wages average over $42.00/hour to lower-paying occupations like Office & Administrative Support at $15.00/hour.
In April, there were 388,900 online advertised vacancies for management positions - a decline of 207,000, or 35 percent, from last April's level. Demand for computer and mathematical positions dropped 194,600 to 394,100 and were 33 percent below the April 2008 level.
Office and administrative support ads were down 177,700 to 332,700 over the same period. Other categories showing severe declines included healthcare practitioners and technical (-136,600), business & finance (-100,300), and architecture and engineering (-87,800).
METRO AREA HIGHLIGHTS
- 49 of top 52 Metro areas post over-the-year declines in job demand in April
- Oklahoma City labor demand up 1,600 over last year's levels,
- Honolulu gains 1,100 advertised vacancies, and Virginia Beach maintains last year's level
In April, 49 of the 52 metropolitan areas for which data are reported separately posted over-the-year declines in the number of online advertised vacancies. Oklahoma City, with 18,300 ads, was well above last year's level (9.3 percent), and Honolulu, with 11,600, gained 1,100 advertised vacancies compared to last year. Virginia Beach was on a par with last year's level. Among the three metro areas with the largest number of advertised vacancies, online advertised vacancies in both the New York and the Los Angeles metro areas were fully one third below April 2008 levels. Washington, D.C. was down 8,300, or about 6 percent, from last year's level.
The number of unemployed exceeded the number of advertised vacancies in all of the 52 metro areas for which information is reported separately. Washington, D.C. and Salt Lake City were the locations with the most favorable supply/demand rates, where the number of unemployed looking for work was only slightly larger than the number of advertised vacancies. On the other hand, metro areas in which the respective number of unemployed is substantially above the number of online advertised vacancies include Riverside, CA, where there are over 11 unemployed people for every advertised vacancy (11.2), Detroit (10.6), Sacramento (6.3), Portland (6.2), Louisville (5.8), Los Angeles (5.6), Miami (5.6), Chicago (5.5), Tampa (5.3), Providence (5.2), Atlanta (5.1), and Rochester (5.1). Supply/Demand rate data are for March 2009, the latest month for which unemployment data for local areas are available.
