The U.S. Help-Wanted Advertising Index remained unchanged in April at 29, the Conference Board reported today.
The index, which measures job offerings in major newspapers across America, stood at 34 in April 2006.
In the last three months, help-wanted ads fell in seven out of the nine U.S. regions the board surveys. The steepest declines occurred in the East South Central (-36.7%), New England (-19.3%), East North Central (-8.4%) and South Atlantic (-8.4%) regions, according to the board.
"There's been speculation that the economy won't be much stronger this summer than it was in the first quarter," Ken Goldstein, labor economist at The Conference Board, said in a press release. "The leading economic Indicators have been relatively soft in recent months. Print want-ad volume was flat in April. Online advertising was a little stronger. The JOLTS data (Job Openings and Labor Turnover) showed no negative change through March. These data suggest there is a chance that the labor market might continue to open up new jobs at a pace of about 120,000 to 130,000 new jobs a month this summer -- about the same pace as in the spring."
Turning to the internet, online job ads totaled 4,374,400 in May, an increase of 9,000, or 0.2% from April, according to the board's Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series. There were 2.9 advertised job vacancies online for every 100 persons in the labor force in May, according to board data.
