In December there were 3,541,200 online advertised vacancies, a rise of 6 percent from last December, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™. While this number is up from last year, it was down by 13 percent from the November level, mostly due to a downward seasonal pattern which began with the Thanksgiving holiday.

There were 2.3 advertised vacancies online for every 100 persons in the labor force in December. The monthly decrease in advertised job vacancies was reflected in all of the 50 states and major metropolitan areas.

"The period between Thanksgiving and the end of the year is typically slow in terms of hiring, so it's not surprising to see a large decline in the number of job ads last month," said Gad Levanon, Economist at The Conference Board. However, the year on year growth rate of online advertised vacancies, while still positive, has slowed in recent months, and the 5.9 percent increase (December'06-December'07) is the smallest since this series began in May 2005. "These data suggest that the slow pace in the labor market will continue in the months ahead and is likely to extend into the spring of 2008," he noted.

THE NATIONAL - REGIONAL PICTURE

In December, 2,305,100 of the 3,541,200 unduplicated online advertised vacancies were new ads that did not appear in November, while the remainders are reposted ads from the previous month. The 13 percent decrease in total ads in December was caused primarily by a 17.9 percent decrease in new ads. Despite these declines, over-the-year (December'06 - December'07) total ads and new ads rose 5.9 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively.

The national decline in advertised vacancies between November and December '07 reflected a lower volume of ads in all nine Census regions. All of the regions saw a decline (between 10 and 15 percent) from last month. Over-the-year (December '06 - December '07), seven of the nine regions continued to show a gain in labor demand. Two exceptions to this were again New England and the Pacific regions, where the level of online job ads has been below the previous year level for three months.

OCCUPATIONAL FOCUS

"Many jobs in high demand are also, on average, among the highest paying occupations," said Levanon. Healthcare practitioners and technical workers (284,400) and management positions (248,000) continue to be the top occupations with a significant number of ads posted online. According to the latest federal hourly wage data, wages average above $44 an hour for management positions and about $30 an hour for healthcare practitioners and technicians. Also in high demand are computer and quantitative skills related occupations (213,200), business and financial occupations (212,000), and office and administrative support (205,700).