Healthcare Online Job Postings Fall in June

"The national trend in labor demand, while still positive, has definitely slowed in the last few months as gains in one month are partially offset by a pullback in advertised vacancies in the next," June Shelp, Vice President at The Conference Board, said in a media release.

"The pattern over the last few months is beginning to look like the very slow growth in labor demand in 2010. After the large increase of 526,000 in January, average monthly job growth over the next five months has been choppy and has averaged about 33,000/month," she said. "The current number of advertised vacancies is close to the monthly 4.5 million posted just prior to the recession. However, in May there were just over three unemployed workers seeking jobs for each vacancy—double the number of 1.5 unemployed for every advertised vacancy just prior to the recession."

Online job listings in healthcare continue to yo-yo from month to month. In May, demand for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations fell by 3,400 listings to 565,100. The drop was led by declines in advertised vacancies for speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists. Healthcare support positions grew by 4,100 new listings to 133,200, even though there were declines in openings for physical and occupational therapist assistants.