About 3,248,000 online job postings appeared on leading Internet job boards in March, a 100,000 decrease from February’s 3,348,000, the Conference Board reported yesterday.
“The March numbers indicate that we are not at the bottom of the employment cycle but that the declines in labor demand may be slowing,” said board senior economist Gad Levanon. “The March decline is significant but substantially less than the 500,000 monthly drops we were seeing in December and January. When the federal employment numbers are released this Friday, we still expect a very large drop and last month’s gap of nine million between labor demand and supply will widen further.
“The next two months, April and May, are when employers typically ratchet up their spring hiring, and these months will be a good indication of whether labor demand is beginning to turn around,” Levanon noted. In March, there were slightly over two advertised vacancies for every 100 people in the labor force compared to slightly over three per 100 in March 2008.
