May 2009: U.S. Employment Activity

According to the exclusive data compiled by the CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index research team, since September of 2008, there has been a rapid deterioration in the volume of jobs posted online. However, in April 2009, this trend appears to have bottomed out, and data from May 2009 shows a sharp increase. In fact, this jump recovers virtually all of the losses experienced over the past 3 months.

NOTE: Index scores are calculated against a base year of 2007, where job posting volume for each month of 2007 = 100 points. A score < 100 means that job posting volume in a given month was less than during the corresponding month in 2007, while a value > 100 means that it was higher.

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

Index Month	Index Score	Monthly Change
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

Though the recent increase is significant, examining total job posting trends over the past year reveals that the CareerCast.com/JobSerf Index is still down 39.2 points from its May 2008 value (95.8). In addition, given the current Index for May 2009 (56.6) and the 60% increase in unemployment over the past year, according to our research getting a job online is nearly three times more difficult than it was 12 months ago.

Improved job posting performance in May 2009 is a welcome change, but from the overall picture it's clear that a full recovery will continue to take time.