Online Job Ads Up In September, Demand For Computing Experts High

Online job vacancy ads rose more than 17% year over year in September and 4% from August to September, according to The Conference Board, a business membership and research group. The Conference Board, which boasts more than 2,000 members, announced Monday that advertised vacancies online rose to 4.27 million in September, up 165,000 from the previous month. Compared to September 2006, the number increased by 17.5% last month, according to the group. For every 100 people in the labor force in September, companies advertised 2.78 vacancies online, The Conference Board reported in its Help Wanted Online Data Series. Gad Levanon, an economist at The Conference Board, reported that coastal regions that are more "mature" in their Internet job advertising experienced a slowdown in the growth rate for online job vacancy ads. "In many of the smaller metro areas, and where online job advertising has lagged behind the largest metro areas, the growth rates continue to be very strong," he said in a statement. The Conference Board said that the 4% increase reflects a 6% increase in new ads and a 1% increase in ads reposted from the previous month. In other words, more than 2.93 million of the 4.27 unduplicated online vacancies advertised last month did not appear in August, according to the report. Online job demand continued to outpace the previous year's level in eight out of nine Census regions. In New England, the group reported 3.65 ads per 100 people in that labor force, declining 5% from the previous month, as consumer confidence in the employment outlook also cooled, the board reported. The Pacific region, which includes California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska, saw 3.62 ads for every 100 people in the labor force, up 8% over the previous year. The Mountain region experienced the highest ads rate in the nation (3.86), up 29% from September '06 to September '07, according to the report. The central regions of the country experienced the largest year-over-year gains with the West South Central region up 43%, the East North Central region up 28%, and the West North Central region up 25%, The Conference Board said. The South Atlantic region was up 13%, according to the report.

The states with the most favorable supply to demand ratios included Montana (0.50), Idaho (0.69), Wyoming (0.73), and Delaware (0.75), according to The Conference Board. In 14 states, the supply to demand ratio was less than 1.0, meaning they have more online job ads than unemployed workers. However, nationwide the number of unemployed people exceeded the number of online job ads with a supply/demand rate of 1.73. 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). The figures come from the latest unemployment data available from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those statistics are computed with new, first-time online job ads and jobs reposted from the previous month on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and several smaller sites that serve specific industries and geographic areas. The Conference Board cautioned that the level of ads in both print and online may change for reasons not related to overall job demand. "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," Levanon said in a statement. Health-care practitioners and technical workers, as well as managers, continued to experience the highest number of openings (334,500 and 303,400) compared to other industries. "These are also, on average, among the highest paying occupations," Levanon said. According to the latest federal hourly wage data, wages average above $44 an hour for management positions and about $30 an hour for health-care practitioners and technicians. Office and administrative support, business and financial occupations, and computer and mathematical occupations are also in high demand, according to the report.