Online Job Openings Reach 22-Month High in Sept.

"Online advertised vacancies rose 59,900 in September to 4,296,100 following a decrease of 57,100 in August, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine™ (HWOL) Data Series released today (see chart above). The gap between the number of unemployed and advertised vacancies (supply/demand rate) stood at 3.51 unemployed for every advertised vacancy in August (the last available unemployment data) but is down from its peak of 4.73 in October 2009. (see Chart 1 in the report).

“Since the NBER June 2009 end of the recession, HWOL has increased by 1 million advertised vacancies,” said June Shelp, Vice President at The Conference Board. “The HWOL series trough in April 2009 led the NBER official trough by about 2 months, reflecting a rather typical pattern where labor demand leads at economic turning points. Following the rapid HWOL rises in labor demand in the 4th quarter 2009 and 1st quarter 2010, the end of 2010.” (see Chart 2)."

MP: Although the increases in the HWOL index have slowed in recent months, the 4,296,100 job vacancies in September were the highest level since November 2008, almost two years ago.