Online advertised vacancies rose 208,800 in March to 4,454,500 according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine™ (HWOL) Data Series released on Wednesday. The March rise follows a large January increase and a small change in February, and brings the gain in labor demand in the first quarter of 2011 to over 600,000.
Among the regions, the South posted the largest numeric gain in labor demand, up 86,100, in March. Among the larger States in the region, Texas led the region with a rise of 16,700 and Florida increased by 10,600.
In March, there were posts increases for a variety of occupations, including food service workers, sales, office help and building and grounds workers.
“Thus far in 2011, labor demand is looking strong,” said June Shelp, Vice President at The Conference Board. “In the first quarter of 2011, the monthly increase in advertised vacancies has averaged about 200,000/month. That’s good news after the overall anemic growth in labor demand over the last 11 months of 2010. In March, almost half of the advertised vacancies were new ads that were not there the previous month (new ads up 98,200). This is a further positive sign that employers are continuing to look for workers.”
