Online Labor Demand up 52,900 in June

Modest June gains not enough to end the bumpy first six months of 2013

Labor demand flat from January-June of 2013

Note: May 2013 data were revised

News provided by

Jul 03, 2013, 10:00 ET

NEW YORK, July 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Online advertised vacancies rose 52,900 in June to 4,980,300, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine® (HWOL) Data Series released today. In the first six months of 2013, labor demand rose an average of 800 per month. The Supply/Demand rate stands at 2.4 unemployed for each vacancy. In May, there were 6.8 million more unemployed than the number of advertised vacancies, down from 11.9 million at the end of the recession in June 2009.

"Labor demand in the first half of this year has been disappointing," said June Shelp, Vice President of The Conference Board. Two bright months (January and April) have been offset by declines or modest gains in the other four months of the first half of 2013. While labor demand is well above its pre-recession high, the strong upward trend since 2009 has stalled with 19 of the 20 largest states either flat or down in the first half of 2013. Arizona is the only large state with a positive trend. This year, the construction trades have been relatively strong with construction up 11 percent, and maintenance and repair rising 8 percent. Online demand has been weak this year for many of the higher-wage professional occupations (healthcare professionals, architecture, business and finance, and computer workers) as well as occupations with more modest wages (personal care, sales, production workers, and office workers).

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

Follow The Conference Board
Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

SOURCE The Conference Board