Help-Wanted Advertising Index Dipped One Point in August
September 28, 2006
The Conference Board Help-Wanted Advertising Index — a key measure of job offerings in major newspapers across America — dipped one point in August. The Index now stands at 31. It was 37 one year ago.
The Conference Board is the global business research and membership organization.
In the last three months, help-wanted advertising declined in eight of the nine U.S. regions. Steepest declines occurred in the West North Central (-17.5%), Middle Atlantic (-17.3%), Mountain (-9.2%) and West South Central (-9.2%) regions.
Says Ken Goldstein, labor economist at The Conference Board:
"The latest data show that job advertising in print edged lower again in August, while the rise in ad volume online continued to slow. A stronger job market this winter does not seem likely, given the overall economic environment. It's not just cooler consumer attitudes and spending (despite some relief from high gas prices). Business is bracing for the prospect of less profit growth — because volumes are down and rising costs could start to squeeze margins. That makes business attitudes no more bullish than consumer attitudes."
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http://www.conference-board.org/economics/helpwanted.cfm<emphasis added>
I cannot find a link for this story at any of the corporate media outlets. This story is a standard story that is written every month. The press release is issued a 10:00am on the last Thursday of each month. Notice that in my previous post the time on the Reuters story on June 26th was 10:0am.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2363130Today there is no story on Reuters or on any other whoreporate media.
If someone can find a link to this story, please post. Most months it is reported on CNN Money, MSNBC Investing, etc.
This is the LOWEST this index has been since bush stole office. I know all the arguments about on-line help wanted ads (see my answers in the previous post and notice that the story points out that even online ads "continued to slow"), but this is still a significant number and this month it is a very BAD number and, apparently, an unreported number. You can bet that if was a GOOD number, it would be reported