Online Labor Demand Rises 164,600 In August

September 3, 2014

• August posts strong increase following small loss in July
• Large gains for California, Michigan, Illinois and Florida

Online advertised vacancies gained 164,600 to 5,209,200 in August, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL) Data Series released today.  The July Supply/Demand rate stands at 1.9 unemployed for each advertised vacancy with a total of 4.6 million more unemployed workers than the number of advertised vacancies.  The number of unemployed was 9.7 million in July.

"Labor demand has shown some renewed strength over the past three months with an average increase of 102,000 per month," said Gad Levanon, Director of Macroeconomics and Labor Markets at The Conference Board.  "The 2014 gains through August are an improvement over the slower-paced gains of 2013 for the same period."

In August the professional occupations continued to show improvements after earlier 2014 losses.  Gains included Business and Finance (10,700), Computer and Math (19,300), and Healthcare (24,200).  The Services/Production occupations also showed gains in Office and Administration (20,100), Sales (13,900), and Food Preparation (12,300).

August Changes for States

In August, online labor demand was up in 45 states and down in five states.  All four regions experienced gains.

The Midwest experienced the largest August gain, at 54,200.  The largest gain occurred in Michigan (15,200) to 174,900.  Illinois rose 12,500 to 213,900.  Wisconsin (+6,300 to 112,400), Ohio (+4,400 to 181,700), Missouri (+2,600 to 84,500), and Minnesota (+1,900 to 125,500) also saw improvement.  Among the smaller states in the region, Indiana rose 5,800 to 90,200; Iowa rose 2,900 to 62,500, and Kansas rose 1,000 to 47,400.  North Dakota and South Dakota inched up with gains of 500 and 200 respectively.

The South grew by 47,800 in August.  By far the largest gain among larger states in the region was Florida's increase of 11,900 to 273,000.  Texas gained 7,400 to 400,400, followed by Virginia (+5,000 to 150,400), North Carolina (+4,100 to 132,700), Georgia (+3,300 to 148,700), and Maryland (+1,900 to 105,100).  Among the smaller states, South Carolina was up 3,300 to 67,800 and Kentucky rose 1,900 to 51,400.  Alabama and Mississippi were up 800 and 600 respectively, while West Virginia fell 500.

The West experienced a gain of 47,700, led by a spike of 32,300 in California to 579,200.  Colorado (+7,600 to 130,500) and Arizona (+4,300 to 99,400) also saw gains, while Washington fell 400 to 127,200.  Among the smaller states in the West, Oregon (+4,800 to 73,000) led gains, followed by Idaho (+1,900 to 25,600) and Hawaii (+900 to 21,000).  New Mexico saw a slight gain of 800 while Utah dropped 1,500 and Alaska fell 600.

The Northeast rose 12,900, reflecting gains in Massachusetts (+7,900 to 157,300), New Jersey (+6,700 to 147,600) and New York (+5,100 to 308,600).  Pennsylvania dropped 16,100 to 202,200.  In the smaller states, Connecticut gained 2,200 to 72,900; New Hampshire gained 1,700 to 31,200; and Rhode Island gained 1,000 to 21,200.  Maine and Vermont were both up slightly by 500.

Metro Area Highlights

• In August, among the 20 largest metro areas, two (Houston and Philadelphia) declined, 17 gained, and one (Cleveland) remained constant
• Of the 52 metro areas for which Help Wanted Online provides monthly data, 46 gained advertisements, four (including Pittsburgh and Salt Lake City)lost, and 2 (Cleveland and Buffalo) remained constant

Occupational Highlights

• In August all of the 10 largest online job categories posted gains

Source: The Conference Board