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Conference Board's Help-Wanted Index Falls One Point
NEW YORK -- The Conference Board's Help-Wanted Advertising Index -- a key barometer of America's job market -- declined one point in April. The index stands at 38, down from 39. It stood at 37 a year ago.In the last three months, help-wanted advertising increased in five of the nine regions in the United States, the largest occurring in the Rocky Mountain (12.6%) and South Atlantic (11.1%) regions. The declines in the other four were modest except the East South Central region, which fell 19.4% in the last three months.Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein offered this commentary: "No one expects the economy to continue delivering over a half- million new jobs every two months. The data on want-ad volume suggests the pace of hiring will moderate. Nevertheless, a return to a jobless expansion is not in the cards. The big change in the labor market has been more jobs opening up while fewer jobs are lost. The only change in these conditions is probably to a moderate but sustainable pace of job openings this summer. The loss of one point in the index in each of the past two months is not consistent with any significant drop in labor market activity just around the corner."The Conference Board surveys the volume of help-wanted advertising in 51 major newspapers across the country every month. Because ad volume has proven to be sensitive to conditions in the labor market, the index is a gauge of changes in the local, regional and national supply of jobs.Latest seasonally-adjusted results follow:April 04 March 04 Feb. 04 April 03 38 39 40 37National Index Proportion of Labor Markets with rising Want-ad Volume 43% 22% 63% 22%Unemployment Rate 5.6% 5.7% 5.6% 6.0%Visit the Conference Board at www.conference-board.org "