July 2009: U.S. Employment Activity

After relatively slow growth in June, the number of available jobs increased significantly in July 2009, signaling what may be the beginning of a sustained recovery. However, while the CareerCast.com/JobSerf Index showed the largest single-month gain on record since January 2008, July's Index score is still 22.1 points below where it was a year ago, meaning significantly more growth is needed before the number of job openings available online returns to 2007 – 2008 levels.

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 - July 2009:

Index Month	Index Score	Monthly Change
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

Looking at job posting activity since the beginning of last year, July’s healthy gains indicate that the job market may have bottomed out in April 2009, when the CareerCast.com/JobSerf Index score fell to just 41.4. That said, with unemployment expected to continue rising in the short term, competition for available jobs will be significantly greater than it was during the same period in 2008.