Job Postings Show Big Increase

The Conference Board has reported that online job postings jumped in May. This is the first job opening increase in 6 months and the biggest jump in over two years.  It has been a long time since we’ve seen a chart like this:

In the release, The Conference Board’s senior economist Gad Levanon said:

“The May bounce in labor demand is a very welcome sign. Labor demand typically leads the trend in both employment and unemployment, so positive signals on labor demand are always important.”

The report indicates that job junctions with the biggest increases were in management, admin and technical positions.

Over half of the 250,000 May increase in online advertised vacancies reflected increases in Management (43,600) and Office and Administrative Support Services (41,600) as well as Computer and Mathematical Science (34,800) and Health Practitioners and Technical occupations (20,100). The remaining increases were spread across the wide range of occupational categories.

As reported on ERE.net yesterday, another positive indicator came from ExecuNet’s Recruiter Confidence Index (RCI).  Their confidence index has climbed to its highest level in 11 months.  The survey of 143 executive recruiters found that 57% are confident or very confident that the executive employment market will improve in the next six months.