Job Seekers Continue to Shift Towards Internet, Conference Board Reports

Job seekers are steadily increasing their use of the internet as a key part of their job search, The Conference Board reports. In the most recent survey of workers who searched for a job between January and September 2007, 73 percent reported using the internet compared to 66 percent of job seekers in the same time period in 2005.

"The Internet has become the most popular method of job searching," says Gad Levanon, economist at The Conference Board. "Newspapers are still popular as a major job search method, but job seekers reported using them less, dropping from 75 percent to 65 percent between 2005 and 2007."

Most job seekers continue to use more than one method in searching for a job. Online and print ads were not mutually exclusive and are still the most frequently used methods of exploring job openings. However, over half (51%) of job seekers reported networking through friends and colleagues as part of their job search. About one quarter (24%) responded that they used
other methods, such as employment agencies.

The research shows that the Internet is being used for a variety of job search functions, from gathering employer/job information (59 percent of job seekers), submitting resumes and applications (57 percent), to posting resumes on a website (40 percent), and signing up for email notifications (30 percent).

In September, there were 4,270,000 online advertised job vacancies according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series (HWOL). There were 2.78 advertised vacancies online for every 100 persons in the labor force in September. The HWOL data series reports monthly on the sum of the number of unduplicated online job vacancies.

The data on job search methods is based on a nationally representative sample of 5,000 households surveyed monthly for The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index and is conducted on behalf of The Conference Board by TNS.

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Survey: Labor Demand Still Soaring in Gulf Coast Area

Labor markets in areas damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 continue to be among the most active markets in the United States, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine DataSeries.

For the last three months, the average monthly count of online advertised vacancies in the New Orleans metro area was 17,300, a level that is more than double the monthly average for the three months before Katrina.

"In the last three months, the average number of ads for the nation was 11% above the three months prior to Katrina, well below the growth in the Lake Charles (65%), Pascagoula (30%), Gulfport (41%) and New Orleans (105%) metro areas for the same period," says Gad Levanon, economist at TheConference Board. "The Houma metro area had a very dramatic rise in online ads after the storm and the average monthly number of advertised vacancies is still running about 1,700 ads per month, a level that is over five times the pre-hurricane level."

Adds Levanon: "Labor demand is also stronger than the national average in many of the metro areas where the Katrina evacuees fled."

Again, while vacancies were up 11% nationally, the three-month moving averages seen in Baton Rouge (74%), Austin (76%), Houston (49%), San Antonio (86%), and Dallas (37%) are much greater, the survey says.

The labor demand covers a wide range of occupations. In New Orleans the largest increase in demand is for office and administrative support, business and financial operations, and management occupations. "It's not just construction," notes Levanon. "In the damaged areas, the number of ads for architects and engineers has more than doubled, reflecting there building efforts. The high labor demand is a positive sign for the revitalization of the Gulf Coast area. But it is just part of the overall dynamic of the area. Population shifts make a big difference."

In some areas like Lake Charles, the labor force has rebounded almost to its pre-hurricane size while New Orleans' labor force is reported to be down over 30 percent from its previous level. "Part of the labor demand reflects the difficulty of finding workers in the reduced local labor force," he says.

The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series is released monthly and measures the number of unduplicated online jobs postedon more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller job boards that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.

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