Gains were minimal in December, but overall the number of available job openings nationally increased by nearly 12% from last year. CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index December 2009 December Hiring Overall December Hiring by Job Title December Hiring by City December Hiring by Region The holidays traditionally are a slow period for hiring, as job seekers take a break from submitting applications and companies busily prepare for the new year. A decline in the volume of available job openings during this period is not unusual – even during economic growth. Yet despite this, after suffering steep losses in September and October, hiring activity remained positive for the second straight month in December, though by only a small margin. In addition, December's performance helped year-end job availability improve by 12% overall from 2008, indicating that a job market turnaround may finally be taking shape.
Hiring gains return in November, but after steep losses in recent months, a complete job market recovery likely is a long way off. CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index November 2009 November Hiring Overall November Hiring by Job Title November Hiring by City November Hiring by Region After an unexpected decline in hiring over the past two months, the U.S. employment market is on the rebound once-again. The number of new job openings across a comprehensive selection of employment websites saw a modest increase in November, marking the first sustained period of hiring growth since August. That said, after a sharp downturn in job availability during the early fall, which is traditionally a good time of the year to find a job, it may be a while before hiring returns to levels seen before the economic collapse of late 2008.
After an unexpected drop of 14% last month, the volume of managerial job openings available online stabilized once again in October, declining by just 0.8%. However, while nervous white-collar job seekers can take heart that hiring activity isn’t experiencing the same free fall it did a year ago, hopes of a rapid, sustained recovery in job availability may be on hold for the near future. CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index October 2009 October Hiring Overall October Hiring by Job Title October Hiring by City October Hiring by Region According to the CareerCast.com/ JobSerf Employment Index, which measures the volume of managerial openings across the U.S., job posting activity dropped a total of 0.6 points in October, to an overall Index Score 67.8. This is a far cry from the 11.4-point loss seen in September, but still marks the second month of negative activity after a period of sustained growth, when job availability increased by almost 90% between April and August. Recent speculation had been that the employment crisis was finally coming to an end, and while hiring activity has made significant gains this year, it is still nearly 8% below October 2008 levels, when the recent economic downturn began in earnest.
Despite signs that the economy is beginning to recover, white-collar job seekers will have to wait a little longer for activity to rebound in the employment market. After four months of increased job availability, the number of managerial positions posted online dropped significantly in September, registering the largest single-month decline since February. CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index Septemerb 2009 September Hiring Overall September Hiring by Job Title September Hiring by City October Hiring by Region According to the CareerCast.com/ JobSerf Employment Index, which measures the volume of managerial jobs available online across the U.S., job posting activity was down 14% in September, falling to an overall Index Score of 68.4. This follows four straight months of recovery since the market bottomed out in April, when job-posting activity registered an index score of just 41.4. Despite steady improvement over that period, however, the overall volume of available jobs remained more than 25 points below levels seen before the economic downturn that began in September, 2008.
After a dramatic increase in July, online job postings slowed in August but continued to maintain a four-month positive trend. Washington, D.C., was again the best city in which to find a new job, while Riverside, Calif., had the fewest job openings online per capita of any surveyed metro area. CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index August 2009 August Hiring Overall August Hiring by Job Title August Hiring by City August Hiring by Region For job seekers anxiously watching for an improvement in the national employment scene, the good news continues to come in fits and starts. After jumping a full 17.8 points last month, the volume of online job openings grew just 1.6 points in August. Despite this slowdown, August still marked the fourth straight month of positive activity since the job market hit bottom in April 2009, indicating that while slow, the current recovery is more than a temporary anomaly.
Job posting activity increased dramatically in July, bringing the number of job openings available online back to levels not seen since November, 2008. However not all cities benefited, as Washington, D.C., had more jobs than any other major U.S. urban area. CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index July 2009 July Hiring Overall July Hiring by Job Title July Hiring by City October Hiring by Region If you're a job seeker who's having trouble finding a managerial position, it may be time to consider a move to the nation's capital. According to the CareerCast.com/ JobSerf Employment Index for July 2009, Washington, D.C., currently has more white-collar job openings than any other city in America.
The pace of online job posting continued to improve in June, though growth was a bit slower than the month before. The June rise marks two straight months of increased job-posting activity, and just the third positive month since November 2008. CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index June 2009 Hiring Overall Hiring by Job Title Hiring by Region Struggling job seekers may finally be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Hiring activity in the U.S. is still well below the levels seen in mid-2008, but according to new data, the number of job openings for C-level, VP, Director and Managerial candidates improved in June, continuing the spring’s positive trend for the second month in a row.
Thousands of job seekers across the U.S. are wondering if they would be better off looking for work in a new location . The question is where?