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The Conference Board Help-Wanted Online Data Series(TM) Increases in May

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

NEW YORK, June 20 /PRNewswire/ -- New online job ads increased in May to 2,354,500, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series(TM). The May level was 91,800, or 4 percent above the previous month and followed a sharp decline in April.

Despite the increase, the number of new ads for online jobs in May was lower than in March, which was the month with the highest count since The Conference Board launched the Help-Wanted OnLine Data series in April 2005. In May, there were 1.57 online job ads per 100 persons in the U.S. labor force, compared with 1.51 in April 2006 and 1.60 in March. Over the year May 2005 to May 2006, new online job ads increased 17.4 percent, an increase that is consistent with the rise seen in other labor market indicators during the same period.

"May is typically a month with strong recruitment activity as students are graduating around the country. Therefore, it is somewhat surprising that the count for May was lower than in March," said Gad Levanon, Economist at The Conference Board. "This might point to some continued slowing in hiring that is consistent with weak government measures of employment, hiring and vacancies in April and especially weak employment growth in May. Other labor market indicators, including employment related questions from our Consumer Confidence Index, are also providing signals of a weakening job market in recent months."

The monthly figures reported in the Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series(TM) are the sum of the number of unduplicated new online job ads for each day of the calendar month. The series is a new series with data available monthly beginning in April 2005 and does not have sufficient history to allow for seasonal adjustments.

A Cross-Country Pickup

Increases in new online job ads were evident in all nine census regions in May compared to the April level. The largest increases for the month were in the Pacific region and the Middle Atlantic region (New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania), up 7 percent and 6 percent respectively. The smallest increases were in the Mountain region (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Montana, Utah, Nevada, and Wyoming), and the South Atlantic region (Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia), up 2 percent each. New England remains the region with the highest number of new online jobs per 100 persons (2.38), and the East South Central with the lowest (0.98).

Looking at May 2006 compared to May 2005, the number of new job ads was up in all census regions except for the East South Central region. The largest gains are concentrated in the west and southwestern parts of the country. The largest increase was in the West South Central region, up 40 percent over the year. This region includes Texas and Oklahoma as well as Louisiana where the job picture is impacted by last year's severe hurricanes and increased rebuilding activity. Other areas with substantial year-over-year gains in online job ads were the Mountain and Pacific regions (24 percent and 26 percent, respectively).

In contrast, online job ads in the East South Central region (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee) declined by 5.2 percent between May 2005 and May 2006. Year-over-year increases that were well below the national average were reported for the Middle Atlantic region (New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania), up 6.3 percent, and the East North Central region (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin), up 8.2 percent. "This OnLine Series is still very new and in a developmental stage, making the regional year-over- year changes something that should be interpreted with caution," said Mr. Levanon.

San Diego Tops the Nation in New Online Job Ads

Adjusting job ads for the size of the local labor force, San Diego with 3.66 job ads per 100 persons in the labor force leads the way among the 52 metropolitan areas for which data is published separately. Other metropolitan areas with a large number of ads per 100 persons in the labor force were concentrated on the east and west coasts and include San Francisco (3.48) Seattle-Tacoma (3.58), Boston (3.50) and Washington D.C. (3.26). In May, the Detroit metropolitan area, with less than one online job ad per 100 persons in the labor force (0.83), had the lowest number of ads adjusted for the labor force.

ABOUT THE NEW ONLINE JOB SERIES

The Conference Board Help-Wanted Online Data Series(TM) measures the number of new, first-time online jobs posted on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller job boards that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.

Like The Conference Board's long running Help-Wanted Advertising Index of print ads (which has been published since 1951), the new online series is not a direct measure of job vacancies. The level of ads in both print and online may change for reasons not related to overall job demand.

The Conference Board, as a standard practice with new data series, considers the estimates in The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series(TM) to be developmental. As a not-for-profit business research organization, The Conference Board is publishing the early months of this series for use by the media, analysts, researchers and the business community. Persons using this data are urged to review the information on the database and methodology available on our website and contact the economists listed at the top of this release with questions and comments. Background information and technical notes on this new series are available at: http://www.conference-board.org/economics/helpwantedOnline.cfm. The underlying data for this series is provided by Wanted Technologies, Inc. CareerBuilder, Inc. provides financial support for the series.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE BOARD

Non-partisan and not-for-profit, The Conference Board is the world's leading business membership and research organization. The Conference Board produces The Consumer Confidence Index and the Leading Economic Indicators for the U.S. and other major nations. These barometers can have a major impact on the financial markets. The Conference Board also produces a wide range of authoritative reports on corporate governance and ethics, human resources and diversity, executive compensation and corporate citizenship. Our conference and council programs bring together more than 10,000 senior executives each year to share insights and learn from each other. Visit The Conference Board's award-winning website at http://www.conference-board.org/.

About WANTED Technologies Inc.

Founded in 1997, WANTED Technologies Inc. is a leading provider of real- time sales and business intelligence. Through its proprietary data mining and aggregation technology, WANTED delivers concise, accurate and actionable data, aimed at helping to increase sales and profitability for its clientele throughout North America. WANTED was recently bestowed the Model of Excellence Award by the InfoCommerce Group in recognition of online business innovation. For more information, visit http://www.wantedtech.com/.

About CareerBuilder.com

CareerBuilder.com is the nation's largest online job site with more than 20 million unique visitors and over 1 million jobs. Owned by Tribune Company, Gannett Co., Inc., and Knight Ridder, Inc., the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 550 partners that include 165 newspapers and leading portals such as MSN and America Online. For more information about CareerBuilder.com products and services, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com/.

The Conference Board

CONTACT: Gad Levanon, +1-212-339-0317, or Ken Goldstein,+1-212-339-0331, or June Shelp, +1-212-339-0369, all for The Conference Board

Web site: http://www.conference-board.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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