Posted October 1, 2005 to Getting The Job | Section Home | Print

Conference Board Help-Wanted Online Data Series(tm) Rises in August

The number of new online job ads rose to 2,130,000 in the month of August, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™. This latest monthly figure is up over 4 percent from early summer (June 2005), with gains in 8 of the 9 Census regions.

Ken Goldstein, Labor Economist at The Conference Board, noted that the August data largely reflect the job ad situation prior to Hurricane Katrina which struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi on August 29.

San Francisco and Salt Lake City, with over 3 new online ads per 100 persons in the labor force, posted the highest number of ads when adjusted by the labor force of the local area. Labor force participants include employed persons as well as those actively seeking work. Expressing job ads in terms of the size of the local labor force provides more perspective on the numbers, Goldstein notes.

While the New England, Mountain and Pacific regions have about 2 new online job ads per 100 persons in the labor force, the West South Central and East South Central remain at half that rate – with 1 new online job ad per 100 in the labor force. Within regions, the new metropolitan data also reveal notable differences. In the New England area, Boston posts almost 3 (2.88) new ads per 100 in the labor force, while there are slightly less than 2 ads per 100 in Hartford, CT (1.93) and Providence, Rhode Island (1.83). Differences within and between regions reflect both variations in the propensity to use online technology for job searches as well as job vacancies. The West South Central region includes Austin, Texas, with almost 2 ads per 100 (1.88), compared to New Orleans with less than one ad (0.61) per 100 persons in the labor force. “August data for the Gulf Coast were, no doubt, held down in part by the impending hurricane,” said Goldstein. “Any impact from Hurricane Katrina’s actual destruction would not significantly impact this data.”

ABOUT THE ONLINE JOB SERIES
The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™ measures the number of new, first-time online job ads posted on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller job boards that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas

Like The Conference Board’s long running Help-Wanted Advertising Index of print ads (which has been published since 1951), the online series is not a direct measure of job vacancies. The level of ads in both print and online may change for reasons not related to overall job demand. Over the years, analysts have applied various data-smoothing techniques to the Help-Wanted Advertising Index of print ads and determined that it continues to be a useful measure of the state of labor demand in the United States.

The Conference Board, as a standard practice with new data series, considers the estimates in The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™ to be developmental. As a not-for-profit business research organization, The Conference Board is publishing the early months of this series for use by the media, analysts, researchers and the business community. Persons using this data are urged to review the information on the database and methodology available on our website and contact the economists listed at the top of this release with questions and comments.

Background information and technical notes on this new series are available on The Conference Board’s website: http://www.conference-board.org/economics/helpwantedOnline.cfm
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The underlying data for this series is provided by Wanted Technologies, Inc. CareerBuilder, Inc. provides financial support for the series.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE BOARD
Non-partisan and not-for-profit, The Conference Board is one of the world’s leading business membership and research organizations. The Conference Board produces The Consumer Confidence Index and the Leading Economic Indicators for the U.S. and other major nations. These barometers can have a major impact on the financial markets. The Conference Board also produces a wide range of authoritative reports on corporate governance and ethics, human resources and diversity, executive compensation and corporate citizenship. Our conference and council programs bring together more than 10,000 senior executives each year to share insights and learn from each other. Visit The Conference Board’s award-winning website at http://www.conference-board.org.

About WANTED Technologies Inc.
Founded in 1997, WANTED Technologies Inc. is a leading provider of real-time sales and business intelligence. Through its proprietary data mining and aggregation technology, WANTED delivers concise, accurate and actionable data, aimed at helping to increase sales and profitability for its clientele throughout North America. WANTED was recently bestowed the Model of Excellence Award by the InfoCommerce Group in recognition of online business innovation. For more information, visit http://www.wantedtech.com.

About CareerBuilder.com
CareerBuilder.com is the nation’s largest online job site with more than 20 million unique visitors and over 1 million jobs. Owned by Tribune Company, Gannett Co., Inc., and Knight Ridder, Inc., the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 550 partners that include 165 newspapers and leading portals such as MSN and America Online. For more information about CareerBuilder.com products and services, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com.