"We have seen no real improvement in labor demand throughout 2008 and there is little or no indication in the data that there will be a turnaround in employment for the rest of this year," said Gad Levanon, Senior Economist at The Conference Board. Changes in the volume of job advertising typically lead employment trends. "However, the August seasonal rebound is some positive news that American business is still looking for workers," adds Levanon.
THE NATIONAL — REGIONAL PICTURE
* 3,014,600 new online ads posted in August
* Seven of the nine Census Regions post over-the-year increases in labor demand
In August, 3,014,600 of the 4,833,700 unduplicated online advertised vacancies were new ads that did not appear in July, while the rest were reposted ads from the previous month. In August, the number of total online advertised vacancies rose by 314,300 or 7 percent from July and new ads increased by 105,300 or 4 percent. Compared with August 2007 levels, total ads rose by 4 percent while new ads were down slightly by 0.9 percent from last year.
The monthly national gain in advertised vacancies between July and August '08 reflected increase in ads in every Census region. Online advertised vacancies in seven of the nine Census regions were above last year's August levels. The two regions with over-the-year declines were the Mountain (-0.7%), and Pacific (-7.8%) regions.
STATE HIGHLIGHTS
* Alaska posts the highest ads rate in the country for full year
* South Dakota leads the nation with the lowest supply/demand rate
States where job seekers are continuing to see a large number of advertised vacancies include Alaska, Wyoming, and Massachusetts. Alaska posted 6.09 online advertised vacancies for every 100 persons in the state labor force, the highest rate in the nation. Alaska has held the number one position for a full year. Although behind Alaska, the other states in the top 10 ranking all posted more than 4 ads for every person in the state labor force. Wyoming with 4.63 advertised vacancies per 100 labor force, and Massachusetts (4.52) lead the way. Seven of the top 10 states with the highest ads rate are west of the Mississippi and in addition to Alaska and Wyoming include North Dakota (4.45), Colorado (4.23), Nebraska (4.18), Washington (4.11), and Utah (4.07). The remaining three states are along the Eastern seaboard and in addition to Massachusetts include Delaware (4.44) and Maryland (4.28).
Online advertised vacancies in California, the state with the largest labor force in the nation, totaled 567,800 in August. The ad volume in California dropped by 80,000 ads, or 12 percent, from the August 2007 level. The volume of online advertised vacancies in Texas (366,100) was up 5.4 percent and ads in New York (294,900) increased by 3.7 percent from year ago levels.
"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 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS, July data) and computing the supply/demand ratio (unemployed/advertised vacancies), the state with the most favorable (e.g., lowest) supply/demand rates is South Dakota at 0.72. The runner up state is North Dakota (0.79), in third place is Wyoming (0.80), with Nebraska and Utah (both 0.95) rounding out the top five. In July 2008, six states had a supply/demand rate less than 1.0, indicating that the number of unemployed workers was fewer than the number of online job ads. This is below levels seen in July 2007 when nine states had a supply/demand rate less than 1.0. For the nation as a whole, the comparable supply/demand rate for July 2008 was 2.09, indicating that for every two unemployed people looking for work, there was only one online advertised vacancy.
States where the number of unemployed persons looking for work significantly exceeded the number of online advertised vacancies included Tennessee (3.39), Indiana (3.43), Kentucky (3.45), Michigan (5.2), and Mississippi (5.69).
OCCUPATIONAL FOCUS
* Computer and Mathematical Jobs are Occupations in Highest Demand
"Many jobs in high demand are also, on average, among the highest paying occupations," said Levanon. Computer and mathematical (584,900) and Healthcare practitioners (512,200) are the two occupations with the largest number of ads posted online. According to the latest federal hourly wage data, wages average about $34 an hour for computer and mathematical specialists and $31 for healthcare practitioners. Also in high demand are management jobs (507,200), office and administrative support (498,300), and sales positions (387,700). Production workers (123,000) and installation, maintenance and repair occupations (113,200) also were among the top ten occupations in demand.
METRO AREA HIGHLIGHTS
* Among 52 Large Metro Areas, 31 Areas Post Over the Year Gains
In August, 31 of the 52 metro areas for which data is reported separately posted a larger number of advertised vacancies than last year. The top metro areas in August with almost 6 advertised vacancies per 100 persons in the local labor force included Milwaukee (5.91) and San Jose (5.84). The same metro areas are also among the top ten areas in the country where the number of unemployed persons was almost the same or below the number of online advertised vacancies (supply/demand rate). Salt Lake City is the metro area where the number of advertised vacancies exceeds the number of unemployed by the largest amount (supply/demand rate of 0.70). In spite of the slight improvement nationally in advertised vacancies over last August, increases in unemployment left the number of unemployed persons looking for work higher than the number of advertised vacancies in 48 of the 52 metro areas for which data is reported separately.
