Online Labor Demand Declined in March

But Solid Employment Growth Expected to Continue

- In March, most states and MSAs experienced a decrease in the number of online job ads

- The East North Central region experienced the slowest growth in online job ads over the past year, partly due to the slowdown in manufacturing activity

News provided by

The Conference Board

Apr 03, 2019, 10:00 ET

NEW YORK, April 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Conference Board experimental Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL) Index declined in March. The Index now stands at 102.3 (July 2018=100), down from 104.0 in February.

"The HWOL index declined in March but remains at a level consistent with solid hiring activity," said Gad Levanon, Chief Economist, North America, at The Conference Board. "Despite the one-month decline, it is too early to conclude that hiring activity is slowing. We still expect economic growth to remain above the two percent rate throughout 2019. While job growth is likely to slow, we expect it will remain strong enough to tighten the labor market and draw more people into the labor force."

The release schedule, national historic table and technical note are available on The Conference Board website, http://www.conference-board.org/data/helpwantedonline.cfm. The underlying data for The Conference Board HWOL is collected by CEB, Inc.

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Note: Beginning with the December 2018 release, The Conference Board launched the Help Wanted OnLine® (HWOL) Index and the revised Help Wanted OnLine® Data Series. The HWOL Index measures changes over time in advertised online job vacancies, improving upon the prior Data Series' ability to assess local labor market trends. The index does not measure differences in the number of ads among geographies, occupations, or industries. It measures the change in ads relative to the base period (July 2018=100). An increase in the index is associated with an increase in job openings and hiring activity in the US economy. The revised HWOL Data Series reflects a new methodology and universe of online job ads. Both the revised HWOL Data Series and the HWOL Index begin in January 2012 (see technical note).

SOURCE The Conference Board