August 2009: U.S. Employment Activity

After posting the largest single-month gain in over a year last month, growth in the volume of job openings online slowed in August, rising 1.6 points to an Index Score of 79.8. However, this represents the fourth straight month of positive activity, indicating that a sustained job market recovery is finally underway.

NOTE: The CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index calculates all Index scores against a base year of 2007, where the number of job listings available online during each month of 2007 = 100 points. A score < 100 means that the number of job listings in a given month is less than were online during the same month in 2007, while a value > 100 means that more jobs are available during that month than were in 2007.

Table of Job Posting Index scores, Jan 2008 - August 2009:

Index Month	Index Score	Monthly Change
August 2009	79.8	+1.6
July 2009	78.2	+17.8
June 2009	60.4	+3.8
May 2009	56.6	+15.2
April 2009	41.4	-2.7
March 2009	44.1	-5.4
February 2009	49.5	-12.2
January 2009	61.7	-4.5
December 2008	66.2	-10.9
November 2008	77.1	+3.7
October 2008	73.4	-14.3
September 2008	87.7	-18.0
August 2008	105.7	+5.4
July 2008	100.3	-2.3
June 2008	102.6	+6.8
May 2008	95.8	+1.6
April 2008	94.2	-15.1
March 2008	109.3	+0.3
February 2008	109.0	+8.7
January 2008	100.3	+/-0

After two straight months with an Index Score above 78, online job postings have now fully recovered from the sharp downturn that began in November 2008. However, looking at activity dating back to January 2008, there is still a ways to go before the volume of available jobs returns to levels seen in the spring of last year.