Online Job Demand Unchanged in May, The Conference Board Reports


• Job demand pauses in May after surging over 750,000 in the past six months

• Online demand for workers in sales, education and training, food preparation and service, healthcare support and personal care running above pre-recession levels


Online advertised vacancies were unchanged in May at 4,149,000, following a 223,000 gain in April, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine™ (HWOL) Data Series released today. Online job demand has been on an upward trend since October'09 and averaged 118,000 per month. The gap between the number of unemployed and advertised vacancies (supply/demand rate) stood at 3.68 unemployed for every advertised vacancy in April (the last available unemployment data) compared to 4.76 in October 2009. (Chart 1)

"After the large 223,000 April increase in online advertised vacancies that kicked off the spring hiring season, employers essentially held steady in May," said June Shelp, Vice President at The Conference Board. "As the economy comes out of the recession, online demand has risen in a wide variety of occupations. Occupations commonly associated with office work (administrative, legal and computer jobs) as well as manufacturing and construction vacancies are improving but remain below their pre-recession levels, while online demand for workers in sales, education and training, entertainment, food preparation and service, healthcare support and personal care are all at or above their pre-recession 2007 levels."

OCCUPATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS


• Online demand for Healthcare support workers remained above pre-recession levels

• Occupations where online demand is at or near all time highs also includes workers in sales, personal care, food preparation and service, education, and arts and entertainment


As the US economy begins pulling out of the recession, labor demand is up in all of the larger occupation groups. However, online demand in construction, manufacturing production, and traditional "office" occupations like management, legal, business and finance, computer & mathematical and general office & administrative workers are lagging behind pre-recession levels. In contrast, online advertised vacancies for workers in a range of service occupations like healthcare support, food preparation and service, sales, education, and community and social services are running at or near levels in pre-recession 2007.

Among the top 10 occupation groups with the largest numbers of online advertised vacancies, Healthcare Practitioners and Technical occupations were down 82,800 to 540,400 in May after a slight gain, 3,300, in April. The May drop was largely due to decreases in demand for physical and occupational therapists, registered nurses, and speech pathologists. Still remaining relatively strong throughout the recession, labor demand for Healthcare Support occupations fell 16,600 in May to 111,800 after a modest gain, 2,400, in April. May decreases in this field reflect decreases in demand for workers in occupations like physical and occupational therapist assistants, nursing aids, and medical assistants.

Healthcare is a broad field, and the relative tightness of the labor market varies substantially from the higher-paying practitioner and technical jobs to the lower-paying support occupations. In April, the latest month for which unemployment data are available, advertised vacancies for healthcare practitioners or technical occupations outnumbered the unemployed looking for work in this field by nearly 3 to 1, and the average wage in these occupations is $33.51/hour. In sharp contrast, the average wage for healthcare support occupations is $12.84/hour and there were over 2 unemployed looking for work in the field for every advertised vacancy. (Table B and Table 7).

Computer and Mathematical Science occupations experienced the largest May gain, up 18,100 to 567,600, their highest level since October 2008, after a much larger April rise, 32,500. The May gain reflects in part continued increases in demand for computer systems analysts and computer software engineers (applications).

Architecture and Engineering occupations experienced a May gain of 12,700 to 159,500, their highest level since December 2008, following an equivalent April gain. The May increase reflects postings for a wide variety of occupations including industrial engineers, mechanical engineers, and electronic engineers (non-computer).

Sales and Related occupations rose 8,100 in May to 497,500. In the first five months of 2010 online advertised vacancies for sales workers have averaged close to 500,000/month. "This is a level that is almost 50,000/month higher than monthly demand in calendar 2007," Shelp said. The official beginning of the recession was December 2007.

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 (0.3) and Computer and Mathematical Science (0.4). On the other hand, in Sales and Related Occupations, there were over three people seeking jobs in this field for every online advertised vacancy (3.3) and there were over four unemployed looking for work in Office and Administrative Support positions for every advertised opening (4.2).