There were 2.5 advertised vacancies online for every 100 persons in the labor force in February. The monthly increase in advertised job vacancies was reflected in every state in the nation and was widespread across most major metropolitan areas.

February's total online job ads were increased 22 percent from January. According to data gathered by The Conference Board, there were 2.5 advertised vacancies online for every 100 persons in the labor force in February. The monthly increase in advertised job vacancies was reflected in every state in the nation and was widespread across most major metropolitan areas. Over the year February 2006 to February 2007, online advertised vacancies increased 18 percent for the nation as a whole.

"February was a strong month in terms of labor demand," said Gad Levanon, Economist at The Conference Board. "Total advertised vacancies are up 18 percent over February 2006 levels, and consumer confidence, as measured by The Conference Board Consumer Confidence survey, reached a five and one-half year high. Based on this, I expect that the national employment numbers, which are scheduled for release later this week, will remain solid and in the same range as the last few months."

The 3,824,200 unduplicated online advertised vacancies in February include 2,561,600 new ads that did not appear in January, as well as reposted ads from the previous month. During February, total ads increased 22 percent and new ads increased 29 percent from the previous month. Over the year (February 2006 - February 2007) total ads and new ads rose 18 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Monthly percent change increases were greatest in the East South Central, Middle Atlantic, and West South Central regions. States with the largest increases included California (+110,400), Texas (+57,600), New York (+51,600), Florida (+50,900), and Pennsylvania (+33,400). Major metropolitan areas contributing to these increases were New York (+50,100), Los Angeles (+45,400), Chicago (+27,000), San Francisco (+24,100), and Dallas (+20,600).

The fastest year-over-year growth was in the mid-section of the country with the West North Central and West South Central regions up 33 percent and 32 percent, respectively. Across the nation, states with the largest over-the- year gains in advertised vacancies were Maine (+75 percent), Minnesota (+49 percent), Wisconsin (+40 percent), and Idaho (+39 percent).

Metropolitan areas with the fastest over-the-year growth were heavily concentrated in areas where labor markets were disrupted by the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes; Houston (+62 percent) and Austin, TX (+61 percent).

The February figures reported in the Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series reflect the sum of the number of unduplicated online job ads for each day from mid-January to mid-February. This new series, which includes data from April 2005, does not have sufficient history to allow for seasonally adjusted monthly data.

STATE HIGHLIGHTS

- Massachusetts posts the highest ads rate in February.
- Hawaii, Virginia, and Delaware are among the states where advertised job
vacancies exceed the number of unemployed workers.

Online advertised vacancies in California, the state with the largest labor force in the nation, totaled 643,000 in February. The volume of online advertised vacancies in California was significantly above the next highest states, Texas (303,900), New York (286,800), Florida (272,400) and Illinois (183,100).

Massachusetts, with 152,900 advertised vacancies in February, posted 4.51 vacancies for every 100 persons in the state labor force, the highest rate of any state in the nation. Nevada (4.40) and Delaware (3.93) were close behind in the number of advertised vacancies when adjusted for the size of the state labor force.

"Looking at the number of unemployed in relation to the number of advertised vacancies provides an indication of available job opportunities for the unemployed," said Levanon. Using the latest unemployment data available from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and computing the supply/demand ratio (unemployed/advertised vacancies), the top states where there was less than one unemployed person looking for work for every ad included Hawaii (0.77), Virginia (0.80), Delaware (0.86), and Utah (0.88).

States where the number of unemployed persons looking for work significantly exceeded the level of online advertised demand included Mississippi (6.45), Michigan (5.09), and Arkansas (3.75).

OCCUPATIONAL FOCUS

- Over 406,100 ads posted for Management occupations this month.
- Management and Business/Financial occupations account for more than 1/3
of online ads in some regions.

In February, the occupations with the most advertised online vacancies nationally were Management (406,100) and Business and Financial Operations (333,100). These are also, on average, among the highest paying occupations.

In February, Management and Business/Financial jobs accounted for almost 1/3 of classified online postings nationwide. Across the country, the regions with the highest concentrations in management and business/financial ads are the Middle Atlantic, New England, and East North Central regions, with ads in these occupations accounting for over 30 percent of all online ads in each of these regions. Nearly 35 percent of job ads posted in the Middle Atlantic region, which includes New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, were for these relatively high-paying positions. The remaining six census regions exhibited a lower than average share of management and business/financial online postings.

States with especially high concentrations of management and business/finance ads include New York (36 percent) and Illinois (35 percent). "We expect New York and Illinois to have the highest concentration of these types of ads, as they include New York City and Chicago, two of the country's largest business centers and financial hubs," said Levanon.

Service occupations account for nearly 6 percent of online ads nationwide. Metro areas with the highest concentrations of ads for service occupations include New Orleans, Las Vegas, and Honolulu. "Tourism is a major industry in these metro areas and we expect that service occupations would be widely advertised in these areas," noted Levanon.

WASHINGTON, D.C. STILL IN THE LEAD

- San Jose sets a new record with nearly 7 ads per 100 in the labor force
this month.
- Washington, D.C. has the lowest supply/demand ratio in the nation and is
ranked third in total ad volume behind New York and Los Angeles.

The top 10 metro areas where the number of unemployed persons looking for work was less than the number of advertised vacancies includes a wide range of areas across the nation - Washington, DC, Salt Lake City, San Jose, San Francisco, Austin, San Diego, Richmond, Phoenix, Hartford, and Boston.

Two of the nation's largest metropolitan areas, New York and Los Angeles, were first and second in the absolute volume of advertised job vacancies in February, with 291,800 and 240,300, respectively. The top two metro areas in terms of advertised vacancies per 100 persons in the local labor force were San Jose (6.76) and San Francisco (6.14), followed by Austin (5.27), and Washington, DC (5.24).

Note: The Help Wanted Online Data Series is a new developmental program with research and evaluation studies ongoing in a number of areas. The comparisons in the attached tables between total ads and total unemployed at the various geographic levels are overall counts and it cannot be inferred that the detailed occupation or geographic location of the unemployed matches the occupation or geographic location of the vacancy. Additionally, there may be differences in the way the unemployed person describes their occupation versus the way an employer may describe the same job. The Conference Board welcomes interested user feedback on this important new data set but also urges users to exercise caution in the analysis and interpretation of the data.