Online Labor Demand Rose 83,100 in May

- Job demand gains in May offset most of the April loss

- Gains are widespread across areas and occupations

- Note: Table 6 and MSA unemployment data in Table B are omitted until BLS issues revised seasonally adjusted MSA unemployment data (see technical notes)

News provided by

The Conference Board

Jun 03, 2015, 10:00 ET

NEW YORK, June 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Online advertised vacancies rose 83,100 to 5,445,000 in May, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine® (HWOL) Data Series, released today. The April Supply/Demand rate stands at 1.59 unemployed for each advertised vacancy, with a total of 3.2 million more unemployed workers than the number of advertised vacancies. The number of unemployed was 8.5 million in April.

"Following a very strong January and February, the growth in online vacancies has been basically flat over the past three months," said Gad Levanon, Managing Director, Macroeconomic and Labor Market Research. "Still, even with the recent three-month pause, the 2015 growth rate has significantly outpaced the 2014 growth rate during the same time period."

In May, the Professional category saw the most gains, with the STEM categories of Computers (16,400) and Healthcare (19,700) showing the strongest improvements. The Services/Production category saw gains in Transportation (13,400) and Construction (6,700) but losses in Food (-6,700) and Sales and Related (-8,300). The significant drop in the US S/D rate has been helped by very strong employer demand, ranging from 4 to 5 million ads each month over the past four years, making it easier for the recession's 15 million unemployed to find employment opportunities. With the recession's unemployment numbers finally down significantly, the continued high employer demand at 5 million ads per month will make the job search for new entrants into the labor market much easier.

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

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SOURCE The Conference Board