Regional and State Highlights
* Modest strength seen in the South in states like Florida and Georgia
* Among the 20 most populous states, unemployed people outnumber advertised vacancies (Supply/Demand) and range from a low of roughly 2 to 1 (Maryland) to about 10 to 1 (Michigan)
The number of advertised vacancies declined in June in all four regions of the country (Northeast, South, Midwest and West), ranging from a modest drop of 3,400 in the Southern region to 18,100 in the Northeast, 13,400 in the Midwest and 10,300 in the West. "The June data shows an almost even split between the number of states with increases (24) and the number with declines (26)," said Levanon. "But there are clear signs that the employers are advertising again for workers and in some states the trend over the last few months has improved."
The June decrease of 3,400 in the Southern region reflected the contrasting movement of some of the largest states. Of these states, Florida experienced a sizeable gain, 9,200, and was followed by Georgia (2,900), North Carolina (900) and Virginia (100). Texas and Maryland both experienced declines, -5,100 and -1,400 respectively. Among the smaller states in the South, West Virginia (4,100), Kentucky (3,700) and Arkansas (1,600) increased in June. Oklahoma (-1,100) and Louisiana (-800) both declined in June and continued their relative flat trends since January.
In the Northeast, all four of the largest states posted declines in June. New York showing the largest decrease (5,300), however looking at the trend since January, job demand in New York is basically flat. New Jersey, which was down 2,600 in June, has experienced a modest increase of 1,700 over the last four months. Pennsylvania (-2,700) and Massachusetts (-2,200) decreased modestly in June, and both states continue their downward trend. Among the states with smaller populations in the region, Maine dropped a modest 100 in June and overall has shown a flat trend since January.
In the West, changes in labor demand among the four most populous states in June were split between increases in Arizona and Colorado and decreases in California and Washington. Arizona and Colorado increased 4,600 and 3,400 respectively and thereby returned to their levels at the beginning of the year, although still 40 percent below their levels in June 2008. California was down 15,900 in June and continued its downward trend. Washington reversed only a small number of last month's gains with a decline of 1,300 jobs. Among the states with smaller populations, Hawaii and New Mexico are two states in the West where the trend has been steady since January. In June, Hawaii rose 800 while New Mexico was up 1,000.
In the Midwest, Wisconsin declined by 4,300, Minnesota decreased by 2,300, and Missouri declined by 1,800. Illinois experienced the largest increase (1,900) and was followed by Michigan (800) and Ohio (700). Ohio continues to be the Midwest state where drops in labor demand have leveled off over the last couple of months.
The Supply/Demand rate for the U.S. in May (the latest month for which unemployment numbers are available) was at 4.32, down slightly from 4.40 in April but still indicating that there are more than 4 unemployed workers for every online advertised vacancy. Among the states, the highest Supply/Demand rate is in Michigan (9.95), or nearly 10 unemployed people for every advertised vacancy. Other states where there are over 6 unemployed for every advertised vacancy include Indiana (7.73), Kentucky (7.33), Ohio (6.54), North Carolina (6.49), and Mississippi (6.30). North Dakota (1.41) and Nebraska (1.44) have some of the lowest rates.
It should be noted that the Supply/Demand rate only provides 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
* Online advertised vacancies rise in June for the occupational category Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports and are in line with year ago levels
* Construction and Legal among the categories that are unchanged in June but well below year ago levels
* Labor Demand dips in June for Sales occupations and several white collar occupational categories including Computer and Mathematical
Almost half of the 66,700 monthly decline in June in online advertised vacancies reflects decreases in Computer and Mathematical Science (-19,900), Sales and Related (-11,700) occupations. Advertised vacancies in both of these occupations are over 30 percent below levels of a year ago. Other large occupation groups with declines in June were Health Practitioners and Technical occupations (-10,400), and Architecture and Engineering (-10,000).
While online advertised vacancies in most of these broad occupational categories continue to run well below year ago levels, there are a few exceptions. Art, design, entertainment, sports and media posted 98,200 advertised vacancies in June, exactly in line with the June 2008 level. Healthcare support occupations at 97,800 were slightly above (600) last year's level.
Supply/Demand rates indicated that, among the occupations with the largest number of online advertised vacancies, there is a significant difference in the number of unemployed seeking positions in these occupations. Among the top ten occupations advertised online, there were more vacancies than unemployed people seeking positions for healthcare practitioners (0.4) and computer and mathematical science (0.4). On the other hand, in sales and related occupations, there were about four people seeking jobs in this field for every online advertised vacancy (4.3) and there were nearly five unemployed looking for work in office and administrative support positions for every advertised opening (4.7). For management positions, there were almost two people looking for every advertised opening (1.6).
METRO AREA HIGHLIGHTS
* 49 of top 52 Metro areas post over-the-year declines in job demand in June
* Honolulu labor demand up 2,900 over last year's levels, Providence gains 1,200, and Virginia Beach gains 200
In June, only 3 of the 52 metropolitan areas for which data are reported separately posted over-the-year increases in the number of online advertised vacancies. Honolulu, with 13,700 ads, was well above last year's level (27.4 percent). Providence, with 19,700, gained 1,200 advertised vacancies compared to last year. Virginia Beach, with 21,300, gained 200. Among the three metro areas with the largest numbers of advertised vacancies, the New York and the Los Angeles metro areas were about 25 percent below June 2008 levels. Washington, D.C. was down 14,300, or 8.8 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 nearly 10 unemployed people for every advertised vacancy (9.7), Detroit (9.6), Portland (5.9), Sacramento (5.6), Chicago (5.4), Miami (5.3) and Los Angeles (5.0). Supply/Demand rate data are for April 2009, the latest month for which unemployment data for local areas are available.
