NEW YORK – Online advertised vacancies for healthcare support personnel rose in January, according to a report released this week.

The Conference Board's latest "Help Wanted OnLine Data Series" notes that labor demand for healthcare support occupations rose 6,500 to 119,000 in January. The report reveals that demand for healthcare support workers has remained relatively steady throughout the recession, although the number of unemployed seeking work in this field has remained relatively high.

In December, the last month for which unemployment data is available, there were 2.3 unemployed for every advertised vacancy in healthcare support.

Because healthcare is a broad field, the relative tightness of the labor market varies substantially from the higher-paying practitioner and technical jobs to the lower-paying support occupations.

In December, advertised vacancies for healthcare practitioners or technical occupations outnumbered the unemployed looking for work in the field by more than 3-to-1, and the average wage in these occupations is $32.64 an hour. In sharp contrast, the average wage for healthcare support occupations is $12.66 an hour and there were more than two unemployed looking for work in the field for every advertised vacancy.

The "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.