November 2009: U.S. Employment Activity

After two straight months of declines, positive job growth returned in November, as the national volume of managerial openings online increased by 5.9 points. However, while this is a welcome improvement after losses throughout the early Fall, at an overall Index score of 73.7 the national job availability rate is still below where it was as recently as July. Given that the holiday season, traditionally a slow hiring period, is beginning, this relatively weak November performance clouds the prospects of any job market recovery beginning in earnest before next year.

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

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

Index Month	Index Score	Monthly Change
November 2009	73.7	+5.9
October 2009	67.8	-0.6
September 2009	68.4	-11.4
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

Tracking activity back to January 2008, job availability is still 3.4 points below where it was last year, and a full 26.3 points below October 2007. That said, with gains spreading across all regions of the U.S. for the first time since July, the recent decline in job availability may have been something more akin to a temporary stock market “sell off” than a sustained negative trend.