Healthcare Online Job Postings Up in September

"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.