Conference Board News Release (04/01/15)

Online advertised vacancies increased 15,200 to 5.5 million in March, according to the Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine Data Series. The February supply and demand rate stands at 1.6 unemployed for each advertised vacancy, with a total of 3.3 million more unemployed workers than the number of advertised vacancies. The number of unemployed was 8.7 million in February.

“Online demand growth over the first quarter of 2015 at 349,000 has been the strongest quarterly growth in eight years,” says Gad Levanon, managing director, macroeconomic and labor market research. “The growth has been well-balanced across the regions of the country and the major occupational groups, reflecting an overall healthy employer demand so far in 2015.”

Wall Street Journal (04/01/15) Kathleen Madigan

Companies hired at a tepid pace in March, according to Automatic Data Processing and Moody’s Analytics. Private payrolls rose by 189,000 jobs, which was far below expectations. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had forecast the addition of 225,000 new jobs for the month. The February number was upwardly revised to 214,000 from 212,000. “Job growth took a step back in March. The fallout from the collapse in oil prices and surge in value of the dollar is hitting the job market”, the report says.

Small businesses are adding the most jobs, according to ADP. Companies with between one and 49 employees added 108,000 new employees last month, while companies with between 50 and 499 employees added 62,000 employees. Big firms with 500 or more employees hired 19,000 employees. Manufacturing cut 1,000 jobs in March, while construction added 17,000 jobs and the service sector added 184,000 jobs.