Online Labor Demand Rises 61,300 in January: Conference Board

(Newsroom America) -- Online advertised vacancies rose 61,300 in January to 4,383,400, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL) Data Series.

Nationally, there are 8.8 million more unemployed than advertised vacancies and the Supply/Demand rate stands at 3 unemployed for every vacancy.

"The monthly increase for the last 2 months (December and January) averaged 93,000/month, giving hope that labor demand will continue to improve," said June Shelp, Vice President at The Conference Board.

Overall labor demand has grown by over 1.6 million since the recession's low point in April 2009.

The current monthly level of labor demand of about 4.4 million is in line with the pre-recession high in 2007 and reflects a healthy level of turnover/churning in the U.S. labor market, which is good news for the unemployed and job changers.

However, while the gap between the number of unemployed and advertised vacancies has also narrowed to three unemployed for every ad, down from a high of 5.02 (Supply/Demand rate) at the depth of the recession in April 2009, it still remains well above the November 2007 rate of 1.73, prior to the onset of the recession.