July 2009: Employment Activity by U.S. Region

Spurred by the significant increase in available jobs across the U.S., all major regions enjoyed a boost in posting activity. The West in particular, which last month lagged well behind other regions, enjoyed a 19.1-point jump to an Index score of 75.0, finishing in third place ahead of the Midwest. For the second month in a row the Southwest saw the most job posting activity, edging out the Northeast by a mere 0.6 points.

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 by Region, Jan 2008 - July 2009:

Index Month	Northeast	Southeast	Midwest	Southwest	West
July 2009	87.5	80.3	72.4	88.1	75.0
June 2009	68.6	64.4	60.9	69.4	55.9
May 2009	67.0	61.8	53.1	66.9	51.7
April 2009	46.0	42.5	40.4	47.5	40.1
March 2009	48.1	45.8	39.0	51.6	45.2
February 2009	51.7	50.4	46.6	54.4	50.5
January 2009	66.0	58.5	56.6	70.8	62.6
December 2008	69.7	69.9	59.8	71.8	66.3
November 2008	81.1	76.8	72.7	81.6	78.3
October 2008	75.1	71.5	71.1	79.0	75.2
September 2008	87.0	82.9	86.8	97.8	93.3
August 2008	109.0	102.5	105.8	115.2	109.4
July 2008	106.6	96.4	107.7	111.1	96.3
June 2008	108.0	101.2	100.4	111.7	103.0
May 2008	100.0	97.2	92.2	103.8	97.0
April 2008	98.3	92.3	96.7	99.6	95.5
March 2008	115.2	113.1	108.3	119.3	107.7
February 2008	114.5	105.0	133.6	117.3	105.3
January 2008	101.2	94.6	103.3	113.5	100.3

The number of job openings available online increased dramatically in July across all regions of the U.S. After a better-than-expected performance in June, however, growth in the Midwest slowed again in July, leaving it once-again lagging behind the rest of the nation.