Online job listings surge

The online job market in the Buffalo area took a turn for the better in January rising by 31.7 percent from a year ago, The Conference Board reported Monday.

Total postings rose to 13,800 last month compared to 10,500 in the year-over-year period. New ads jumped even higher — 41.8 percent — to 8,900 from 6,300.

Rochester, like nearly every metropolitan area in the U.S. also rebounded in the comparison to January 2009. The total number of ads increased 25.4 percent to 10,800 from 8,600 while total new job listings improved 26.5 percent to 6,400 from 5,100.

Online advertised vacancies rose by 382,000 to 4,024,000 in January, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine Data Series.

“The last three months have shown a sharp upturn in employer demand for workers,” said Gad Levanon, associate director, macroeconomic research at The Conference Board. “These increases have brought us back near the labor demand levels that existed in November 2008 just prior to the huge losses resulting from the financial turmoil in the last quarter of 2008. This is very good news since these seasonally adjusted increases come in two months when we normally see employers cut back on advertising for workers.”

The gap between the number of unemployed and the number of advertised vacancies in December 2009, the latest available month of unemployment numbers, stands at 11.6 million, with 4.2 unemployed for every online advertised vacancy.

Source: Buffalo Business Chronicle