Online Labor Demand Increased 39,600 in April

- April's gain offsets March's small loss

- The South region posted a strong increase with large gains in Georgia and Texas

- Mostly small gains and losses across States and MSAs

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May 04, 2016, 10:00 ET

NEW YORK, May 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Online advertised vacancies increased 39,600 to 5,170,100 in April, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine® (HWOL) Data Series, released today. The March Supply/Demand rate stands at 1.55 unemployed for each advertised vacancy with a total of 2.8 million more unemployed workers than the number of advertised vacancies. The number of unemployed was around 8.0 million in March.

"With employer demand showing little change since April 2015, the unemployment levels have now also flattened over the past six months," said Gad Levanon, Chief Economist, North America, at The Conference Board. "While both labor demand and unemployment levels remain in healthy ranges, we are now seeing a pause in the pattern of continued monthly improvements for these indicators that have been characteristic of the past few years."

In April, the Professional category saw small gains in most occupational groups except a loss in Arts/Media (-9.2). The Services/Production category saw gains in Food (12.0) and Office/Admin (11.8) with losses in Sales (-15.6) and Transportation (-12.0).

For more information, including press release and technical notes: http://www.conference-board.org/data/helpwantedonline.cfm

About The Conference Board
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SOURCE The Conference Board