Healthcare Online Job Postings Up in September

Online advertised vacancies for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations increased by 17,900 listings in September, marking the second consecutive month of impressive gains for the sector, The Conference Board reports.

And for the second straight month, healthcare practitioners and technicians – with 531,600 online job listings -- posted the largest increases in online advertised vacancies among the top 10 occupation groups in the overall economy.

There were 26,300 new online job listings for healthcare practitioners and technicians in August, which snapped a two-month decline that included a decrease of 61,200 listings in July.

The growth in job postings for healthcare practitioners was largely fueled by the demand for registered nurses, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted Online report, which tracks more than 1,000 online job boards across the United States. For those highly skilled healthcare occupations, there were two jobs advertised for every job seeker, with an average hourly wage of $34.27. 

Healthcare support positions fell by 200 listings to 115,800 in September. There were 2.7 healthcare support job seekers for every job opening, and the positions paid – on average -- $12.94 an hour, The Conference Board reported.

In the overall economy, the news was dour. Online job listings fell by 43,500 posts in September to about 3.8 million, after losing 164,000 job listings in August, 217,000 listings in July and 100,000 listings in June. Nationally there were 10 million more unemployed people than advertised vacancies.

"In the last six months, labor demand has experienced a drop of 500,000, cutting sharply into the gain of 763,000 at the beginning of the year," said June Shelp, vice president at The Conference Board. "This narrows the average monthly gain for 2011 to 29,000."

Shelp noted, however, that the slowdown varies widely for different occupations. "Some occupations stalled early and are now declining; others have just stalled over the last few months and yet others are holding steady either at or below their pre-recession levels," she said.