Conference Board News Release (01/07/15)

Online advertised vacancies fell 79,200 to 5.2 million in December, according to the Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine Data Series. The November supply and demand rate stands at 1.73 unemployed for each advertised vacancy, with a total of 3.9 million more unemployed workers than the number of advertised vacancies. The number of unemployed was 9.1 million in November.

“Labor demand in 2014 continued its steady growth pattern to new series highs,” says Gad Levanon, managing director, macroeconomic and labor market research. “Online labor demand quickly rebounded from the recession and surpassed the prerecession series high in early 2012. In the three years since then, the level of online labor demand has increased further by about 20%.”

The sustained high level of employer labor demand has helped reduce the number of unemployed, with the U.S. supply and demand rate falling from a recession high of 5.2 in 2009 (more than five unemployed for each available ad) to the current level of 1.7. During 2014, the supply and demand rate fell by more than 20% as demand continued to increase and unemployment continued to fall.