Online Labor Demand Up 268,100 in February

-- February posts strong increase following small loss in January

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Mar 05, 2014, 10:00 ET

NEW YORK, March 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Online advertised vacancies were up 268,100 to 5,186,200 in February, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine® (HWOL) Data Series released today. The February Supply/Demand rate stands at 2.1 unemployed for each vacancy with a total of 5.3 million more unemployed workers than the number of advertised vacancies.

"After a very lackluster 2013, the large February increase is the first signal in many months of possible renewed strength in demand for labor," said June Shelp, Vice President of The Conference Board. "The large increase may partially be a result of pent-up demand following the bad winter weather across the U.S."

The February data brightens the demand for service occupations like transportation, healthcare support and office work; however, for these occupations there are still two to three unemployed competing for each advertised vacancy. By contrast, for the high-demand computer and healthcare professional jobs there is notable evidence of worker shortages with three or more advertised vacancies for each unemployed worker.

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

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