Online job ads grow 15% in month

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Online advertised job vacancies in Illinois jumped by 15.4 percent in January from December and by 21 percent over the year, the Conference Board said Monday. There were 175,400 online advertised vacancies in the state this month, up from 152,000 in December and 144,900 in January 2010.

Nationally, postings rose by 11.4 percent, or 438,000, to 4,273,000 from December and by 16.4 percent from January 2010. Still, there are close to four unemployed workers for every online advertised vacancy nationally, the Conference Board said.

“The very strong seasonal gain to start 2011 is welcome news following seven months of essentially flat U.S. labor demand,” June Shelp, vice president at the Conference Board, said in a statement. “Last year, after a promising start, labor demand fizzled and the last half of 2010 was actually flat with no appreciable gains in job demand. Hopefully, the January 2011 increase suggests that employers are seeing a pickup in their businesses and labor demand will continue to improve throughout this year.”

Occupations with the highest number of postings include healthcare practitioners and technical workers.

Francine Knowles