Online advertised vacancies rose by 13,000 in Florida in December 2009, The Conference Board Help Wanted Online Data Series (HWOL) revealed today. For the U.S. as a whole, advertised vacancies rose by 255,000 to 3,642,000 in December, the HWOL show.
Nationally, growth in job demand has been mildly positive since the low point in April 2009, with an average monthly increase of less than 60,000. The 2009 annual average stands at 3,357,000, a figure that is 1.1 million below the 4,481,000 annual average for 2008 and 1.3 million below the average for 2007.
“Employers’ modest increase in demand for labor in the second half of 2009 is a nice way to end what has been a very challenging year,” said Gad Levanon, Senior Economist at The Conference Board. “The gap between the number of unemployed and the number of advertised vacancies is still very high, but the recent six months indicate that things are slowly moving in the right direction. The gap between the number of unemployed and the number of advertised vacancies is about 12 million, with 4.5 unemployed for every online advertised vacancy.”
Of all the states, Washington State posted the largest monthly gain in December of 11,600 since HWOL series began in 2005. Positive trends in labor demand were also seen in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey in the Northeast and Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia and Delaware in the South.
In the South, December online advertised vacancies rose by 120,400, reflecting increases in all of the most populous Southern states. Texas gained 22,100, over twice its November gain. Virginia gained 19,600, its first gain since August, and offset nearly three times its recent losses. Florida gained 13,000. North Carolina was up 8,600 in December and Maryland gained 4,300, its first gain since August while Georgia was up 1,700. Among the less populous states in the South, in December, Oklahoma increased by 8,200, Kentucky increased by 3,000, and advertised vacancies in Louisiana increased by 2,000.
With regard to occupations, labor demand for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, office and administrative occupations, and sales and related occupations rose in December.
Among the top 10 occupation groups, Healthcare Practitioners and Technical occupations, the largest category in terms of volume, posted the largest December gain, 45,100. Job demand was up in a wide variety of these healthcare occupations including registered nurses and physical and occupational therapists.
