THE NATIONAL - REGIONAL PICTURE
In September, 2,934,100 of the 4,270,000 unduplicated online advertised vacancies were new ads that did not appear in August, while the remainder are reposted ads from the previous month. The 4 percent increase in total ads reflected a 6 percent increase in new ads and 1 percent increase in reposted ads. Over the year (September'06 - September'07) total ads and new ads rose 17.5 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively.
Online job demand in September 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 New England region, which continues to have one of the highest ads rates (3.65 ads per 100 persons in the regional labor force) declined for the second month (-5% in September and -6% in August). Recent Consumer Confidence readings on the present and future economic and employment outlook in this region have also cooled over the last few months. The Pacific region, which includes California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska, also has a high ads rate (3.62 ads per 100 labor force), and was up a modest 8% over the year. The Mountain region, which has the highest ads rate in the nation (3.86), was up 29% from September '06 to September '07, substantially above the national average. The central regions of the country experienced the largest over the year gains with the West South Central region leading (up 43%), followed by the East North Central region (up 28%), and West North Central region (up 25%). The South Atlantic region was up 13%.
The September figures reported in the Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™ reflect the sum of the number of unduplicated online job ads for each day from mid-August to mid-September. This new series, which includes data from April 2005, does not have sufficient history to allow for seasonally adjusted monthly data.
STATE HIGHLIGHTS
* Alaska posts the highest ads rate in the country in September.
* Montana leads the nation with the lowest supply/demand rate for the fifth month in a row.
Alaska posted 4.7 vacancies for every 100 persons in the state labor force, the highest rate in the nation, moving up from second place last month. Nevada (4.64) and Colorado (4.52) 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 (4.41) and Arizona (4.29).
Online advertised vacancies in California, the state with the largest labor force in the nation, totaled 666,000 in September. The volume of online advertised vacancies in California was significantly above the next highest states, Texas (374,500), New York (289,700) and Florida (247,800).
"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 (0.50), Idaho (0.69), Wyoming (0.73), and Delaware (0.75). There were 14 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 1.73 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 (4.46) and Michigan (4.25), Kentucky (3.23) and Indiana (3.10).
OCCUPATIONAL FOCUS
* Over 334,500 ads posted for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations in September.
* Management and Business/Financial occupations account for more than 30% of online ads in New York and Illinois.
Healthcare practitioners and technical workers (334,500) and management positions (303,400) 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 (268,500), business and financial occupations (257,300), and computer and mathematical (250,300) occupations.
AUSTIN, TX METRO AREA LEADS AGAIN
* Austin ranks first with 6.75 ads per 100 persons in the labor force.
* Salt Lake City has the lowest supply/demand ratio in the nation.
The top metro areas in September with around 6 advertised vacancies per 100 persons in the local labor force included Austin (6.75) and San Jose (6.25) and San Francisco (5.98). These same metro areas are also among the top ten areas in the country where the number of unemployed persons was below the number of online advertised vacancies (supply/demand rate). Salt Lake City was number one with a 0.50 supply/demand rate. The number of unemployed persons looking for work was fewer than the number of advertised vacancies in 9 of the 52 metro areas for which data is reported separately.
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 September, with 297,700 and 241,600, respectively.
