Online Advertised Job Vacancies Showed Continued Weakness in May

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In May 2008, there were 3,795,400 online advertised job vacancies, a decline of 579,000 or 13.2% from the May 2007 level, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data SeriesT (HWOL) released today. This is the third consecutive month of declines for the nation as a whole (year-over-year). In May, there were 2.5 advertised vacancies posted online for every 100 persons in the labor force, down from a high of 2.9 in May 2007.

"May shows a slight recovery from the large April decline, but overall the number of online advertised vacancies has been on a downward trend for the past several months. The demand for labor will likely be sluggish this summer," says Gad Levanon, economist at The Conference Board. "This lackluster job outlook is clearly a contributing factor in consumer confidence shrinking to its lowest point in nearly two decades, as reported by The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey."

The National/Regional Picture

In May, 2,743,700 of the 3,795,400 unduplicated online advertised vacancies were new ads that did not appear in April, while the remainder are reposted ads from the previous month. In May, a month expected to show a seasonal increase in labor demand, the number of total online advertised vacancies increased by 145,500 or 4 percent while new ads rose by 152,200 or 6% from April. However, the vulnerable labor demand is clear in the May year-over-year numbers where total ads fell 13.2% and new ads fell 2.5%.

The monthly national increase in advertised vacancies between April and May '08 reflected marginal increases in ads in all nine Census regions. However, online advertised vacancies in each of the nine Census regions were below last year's May levels.