Online Labor Demand Rises 47,400 in November

December 2, 2010 – Online advertised vacancies rose a modest 47,400 in November to 4,457,200 following an increase of 113,700 in October, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine Data Series. The nation's Supply/Demand rate stood at 3.37 unemployed for every advertised vacancy in October (the last available unemployment data) — a figure that is down from a peak of 4.73 in October 2009. Nationally, there are 10.4 million more unemployed than advertised vacancies. “In November, demand for workers continued to be positive, albeit moving at a disappointingly slow pace for the last few months,” said June Shelp, vice president at The Conference Board. “November was a surprisingly quiet month throughout the nation, with most states posting small gains / losses in advertised vacancies. In this weak U.S. economic recovery, office help, construction jobs, and positions in business and finance continue to show very sluggish growth.” Among the top 10 occupation groups with the largest numbers of online advertised vacancies, healthcare practitioners and technical occupations posted the largest November increase, up 12,400 to 555,500. Management occupations posted a decrease of 10,900 to 586,600 following a rise of 20,200 in October and a drop of 11,500 in September.