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Online job ads down nationally, but N.C. is bucking trend

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Online advertised job vacancies in the U.S. declined by 83,200 to 3,280,000 in October, according to numbers from The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series, though it noted North Carolina seemed to be going against the trend in measurements since April.

Nationally, online labor demand has been relatively flat since the low point in April 2009, increasing 117,000, or slightly less than 20,000 per month, the business group said. The October decline reflected dips in labor demand across much of the nation.

"The September and October numbers are a further indication that, thus far, the recovery is weak," said Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board. "Labor demand is a leading indicator of employment, and the numbers indicate that employment is not likely to rise for the rest of this year."

"The gap between the number of unemployed and the number of advertised vacancies is about 11.8 million, with 4.5 unemployed for every online advertised vacancy," Levanon said of the national situation.

In the South, October online advertised vacancies fell by 28,500, following a 45,400 September loss. With respect to the longer-term trends among the larger states in the South, Texas and Florida are basically flat while job demand in Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland has turned up.

North Carolina ads were down 1,900 from September to October, but the state has seen improvements since its April low, the Conference Board said. The state's demand rate was at 5.5 unemployed workers for each online-advertised job.

Georgia lost 1,700 ads and had a demand rate of 5.16 and was trending up since January, according to the board's data. The study did not cover South Carolina.

The Supply/Demand rate for the U.S. in September (the latest month for which unemployment numbers are available) was at 4.50, up slightly from 4.31 in August and indicating that there are now 4.5 unemployed workers for every online advertised vacancy.

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