Conference Board News Release (02/04/15)

Online advertised vacancies rose 150,400 to 5.3 million in January, according to the Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine Data Series. The December supply and demand rate stands at 1.70 unemployed for each advertised vacancy, with a total of 3.6 million more unemployed workers than the number of advertised vacancies. The number of unemployed was 8.7 million in December.

“Online labor demand begins 2015 with a large gain, suggesting that labor markets are continuing to improve,” says Gad Levanon, managing director, macroeconomic and labor market research. “In January, all large states and [metropolitan statistical areas] showed solid growth with the increase spread across the major occupational categories.”

In January, the professional category saw strong gains in management (14,000), business and finance (12,400), and health care (11,800). The services and production category saw large gains in sales (21,300), office and administration (29,200), and transportation (27,200).