Report: Labor demand declines 30% in April, but shows improvement

New York City According to The Conference Board’s most recent report, online advertised job vacancies dropped 30% in April. The Board’s Help-Wanted Online Data Series (HWOL) recorded 3,117,000 advertised positions, a decline of 131,000; The April decline follows dips of 6,600 in February and 100,000 in March.

However, the spring drops were an improvement over December and January, in which drops of 500,000 were recorded.

“Based on the April numbers, we are not out of the woods but the decline in labor demand is moderating,” said Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board. “April and May are both months where business typically steps up their demand for workers. This year, that bounce may be more evident next month. With the April drop, the gap between labor demand [HWOL] and supply [unemployment] will widen further when the federal unemployment numbers are released. In March, there were 10 million more unemployed workers than advertised vacancies.”

The brightest areas are in the Northeast and South, including New Jersey, New York, Virginia and North Carolina, where the number of advertised vacancies was up in April. The overall national picture, however, continued to be negative in April, with online labor demand declining in all four regions as declines more than offset the limited increases. The most populous states in the Midwest and West continued to post decreases. 

The downward trend in employer demand, coupled with the monthly increases in unemployment, is creating a widening gap in the supply/demand balance in most states, according to the report. The disparity is making it increasingly difficult for the unemployed to find jobs.

The Conference Board Help-Wanted Online Data Series measures the number of new, first-time online jobs and jobs reposted from the previous month on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller job boards that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.  

More information is available at: http://www.conference-board.org/economics/helpwantedOnline.cfm.