Online Job Demand Unchanged in June

July 1, 2010 – Online advertised vacancies inched up by 19,600 in June to 4,154,000 following a small decline in May, according to The Conference Board’s Help Wanted OnLine Data Series (HWOL). The gap between the number of unemployed and advertised vacancies (supply/demand rate) stood at 3.62 unemployed for every advertised vacancy in May (the last available unemployment data) but is down from 4.73 in October 2009. “In the last two months, labor demand has been little changed following a strong start for Spring hiring in April,” said June Shelp, vice president at The Conference Board. “Thus far, job demand has been uneven across geographies and occupations, and weakness in the housing market is one factor. While all states have experienced some positive upturn in labor demand, states that were heavily impacted by the housing market downturn, in general, are rebounding more slowly.” Among the top 10 occupation groups with the largest numbers of online advertised vacancies, healthcare practitioners and technical occupations posted the largest June increase, up 51,900 to 592,300. Computer and mathematical science occupations were down 12,700 to 554,900 during the month. Management occupations declined 10,000 to 540,300.