NEW YORK – Online advertised job vacancies rose by 169,000 to 3,464,800 in August – and the largest category in terms of job volume was in the healthcare field – according to a new report from The Conference Board.
The latest report from The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series, or HWOL, notes that since April 2009, online job demand is up by 300,000, with many of the largest states showing stability after about two years of losses that began in May 2007.
"The August increase is good news showing what we hope will be a continued improvement in job demand this fall," said Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board.
Among top 10 online advertised occupations, healthcare jobs are posting the largest increases.
According to Levanon, "healthcare practitioners and technical occupations" was the largest category in terms of volume, rising by 52,700 in August to 574,400.
"Advertised vacancies in this occupational category have been declining, and the August increase is the first significant monthly rise we have seen in over a year," he said.
On the other hand, labor demand for healthcare support occupations has remained relatively steady over the last two years and in August rose 16,500, or 16 percent, to 117,800. Individual occupations showing increases include physical and occupational therapists, physical and occupational therapist assistants, speech-language pathologists, home healthcare aides, medical assistants and registered and practical nurses.
Healthcare is a broad field, Levanon said, 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 July, the last month for which unemployment data is available, for every unemployed person looking for work in a practitioner or technical occupation there were 2.5 advertised vacancies, and the average wage in these occupations is $32.64 an hour. In healthcare support occupations, where the average wage is $12.66, there were more than two unemployed people for every advertised vacancy.
Supply and demand rates indicate that, among the occupations with the largest number of online advertised vacancies, there is a significant difference in the number of unemployed seeking positions. Among healthcare occupations advertised online, there were more vacancies than unemployed people seeking positions (0.4).
Levanon said the August job demand data is in-line with The Conference Board's recently released Consumer Confidence Index, which also rose in August, largely reflecting consumers' feelings that jobs are becoming easier to find.
"While all of this is good news, the gap between the number of unemployed and the number of advertised vacancies still remains at about 11 million, with over four unemployed for every online advertised job vacancy," said Levanon.
The Conference Board Help-Wanted Online Data Series measures the number of new, first-time, online jobs and jobs reposted from the previous month on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller job boards that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.
The online series is not a direct measure of job vacancies. The level of ads both in print and online may change for reasons not related to overall job demand.
With its Oct. 1, 2008 release, HWOL began providing seasonally adjusted data for the United States, the nine census regions and 50 states. Seasonally adjusted data for occupations began with the June 1, 2009 release.
