Conference Board News Release (06/03/15)

Online advertised vacancies rose 83,100 to 5.4 million in May, according to the Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine Data Series. The April supply and demand rate stands at 1.59 unemployed for each advertised vacancy with a total of 3.2 million more unemployed workers than the number of advertised vacancies. The number of unemployed was 8.5 million in April. The significant drop in the supply and demand rate has been helped by very strong employer demand, ranging from four million to five million ads each month over the past 4 years. With the recession’s unemployment numbers finally down significantly, the continued high employer demand at five million ads per month will make the job search for new entrants into the labor market much easier.

“Following a very strong January and February, the growth in online vacancies has been basically flat over the past three months,” says Gad Levanon, managing director, macroeconomic and labor market research. “Still, even with the recent three-month pause, the 2015 growth rate has significantly outpaced the 2014 growth rate during the same time period.”