Online Job Demand Turns Positive

September 1, 2009 – Online advertised vacancies rose by 169,000 to 3,464,800 in August, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted Online Data Series (HWOL). Since April, online job demand is up by 300,000, with many of the largest states now showing stable trends following about two years of losses that began in May 2007. With the August data, there are now three States (New York, Maryland and Virginia) where the job demand trends have turned positive. The August increase included strong gains in several of the largest states, including California (26,700), Texas (21,900), Florida (15,700) and New York (11,100). “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. “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.”