Online Job Demand Holds Steady in July

August 12, 2009 – Online advertised vacancies inched up by 700 to 3,295,500 in July, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted Online Data Series (HWOL). Nationally, online job demand has been relatively flat over the last several months after sharp declines in December 2008 and January 2009. Nationally, there were over four unemployed looking for work for every online advertised vacancy, as the number of unemployed increased even as the number of advertised vacancies held steady. “Online job demand has held relatively steady at around 3.3 million advertised vacancies per month for the last six months,” said Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board. “While we are not seeing declines, the sluggish nature of labor demand is another indication that the path to recovery is likely to remain a long haul.” Sales and related occupations and management occupations experienced largest July increases in job demand. Sales and related occupations (up 11,700) and management (up 9,400) experienced the largest July increases in online advertised vacancies and are occupations that have shown an upward trend over the last few months. Advertised vacancies in management occupations have trended upward since May, and in July there were 413,000 management jobs advertised online. The management jobs with the largest July increases include medical and health services managers, sales managers and marketing managers. The Conference Board measures the number of new, first-time online jobs and jobs reposted from the previous month on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller job boards that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.