Job demand pauses in May after surging over 750,000 in the past six months

Online demand for workers in sales, education and training, food preparation and service, healthcare support and personal care running above pre-recession levels

Online advertised vacancies were unchanged in May at 4,149,000, following a 223,000 gain in April, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine™ (HWOL) Data Series released today. Online job demand has been on an upward trend since October 2009, and averaged 118,000 per month. The gap between the number of unemployed and advertised vacancies (supply/demand rate) stood at 3.68 unemployed for every advertised vacancy in April (the last available unemployment data) compared to 4.76 in October 2009.

“After the large 223,000 April increase in online advertised vacancies that kicked off the spring hiring season, employers essentially held steady in May,” said June Shelp, Vice President at The Conference Board. “As the economy comes out of the recession, online demand has risen in a wide variety of occupations. Occupations commonly associated with office work (administrative, legal and computer jobs) as well as manufacturing and construction vacancies are improving but remain below their pre-recession levels, while online demand for workers in sales, education and training, entertainment, food preparation and service, healthcare support and personal care are all at or above their pre-recession 2007 levels.”

For more information, including press release and technical notes:http://www.conferenceboard.org/economics/helpwantedOnline.cfm