The Help-Wanted Advertising Index of job offerings in major newspapers nationwide was unchanged last month at 29 points, after falling from December through March, The Conference Board said today.
That plateau, together with the report that new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week by 1.3 percent, defying forecasts, points to increasing strength in the labor market.
The Help-Wanted index – based on print ads in 51 major newspapers – stood at 34 points in December and in April 2006. It has declined over the past three months in seven of the nine U.S. regions, including New England, The Conference Board said.
“There’s been speculation that the economy won’t be much stronger this summer than it was in the first quarter,” Ken Goldstein, a labor economist at The Conference Board, wrote in the report. “The Leading Economic Indicators have been relatively soft in recent months. Print want-ad volume was flat in April. …
“These data suggest there is a chance that the labor market might continue to open up new jobs at a pace of about 120,000 to 130,000 new jobs a month this summer – about the same pace as in the spring.”
Another labor-market survey, by payroll company ADP Employer Services, yesterday found that U.S. companies added 97,000 jobs in May, accelerating from April’s gain of 61,000, Bloomberg News said.
Meanwhile, the number of workers filing first-time unemployment claims fell 1.3 percent last week to 310,000 from a revised 314,000 claims the week before, the Labor Department said. New claims had been expected to rise by 3,000 to 314,000, according to the median forecast of 38 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
“There aren’t a whole lot of companies shedding workers,” said Russell Price, senior economist at H&R Block Financial Advisors Inc. in Detroit, who accurately predicted the decline in claims.
So far this year, new claims have averaged 319,200 per week, compared with last year’s 313,000.
The Conference Board is a nonpartisan, nonprofit business membership and research organization with offices in New York City, Chicago and abroad. Additional information is available at www.Conference-Board.org.
U.S. Labor Department data, including the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report, is available at www.dol.gov.
