Online Job Demand Unchanged in March

April 1, 2010 – Online advertised vacancies slipped 29,600 to 3,927,000 in March, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine Data Series (HWOL). Following three months of large increases, totaling about 750,000 advertised vacancies, February and March have shown a small combined decline of 97,000. In February, the latest month of unemployment numbers, there were 10.9 million, or 3.76 unemployed for every online advertised vacancy. “The upturn in labor demand over the last five months (+647,000) is a clear signal that the labor market is beginning to recover from the recession,” said June Shelp, vice president at The Conference Board. “However, the recent February and March data suggests that employers may still be somewhat cautious about significantly expanding their workforce as we are preparing to enter the spring hiring season.” Among the top 10 occupation groups with the largest numbers of online advertised vacancies, healthcare practitioners and technical occupations experienced the largest March gain, up 88,100 to 627,300. Management occupations rose 21,600 to 509,600 during the month. Job demand in this occupational group was flat for all of 2009, but has picked up in the first quarter of 2010. Advertised vacancies in office and administrative support occupations were down 47,600 in March to 376,100. Sales and related professions also dropped 10,500 during the month to 467,500.