Healthcare Job Postings Stable in December

After seeing strong growth in two previous months, online ads for healthcare practitioners and technical workers were essentially flat in December, and rose by 1,600 listings to 557,000 nationwide for the month. Despite the end-of-the-year lull, vacancies for the skilled providers outnumber qualified job seekers by almost 3 to 1, a Conference Board report shows.

The board's Help Wanted Online Data Series, tracks more than 1,000 online job boards across the United States. 

Lower skilled healthcare support vacancy listings rose by 3,700 listings to 115,900. There were 2.6 unemployed people for every advertised vacancy in healthcare support. The average wage advertised for healthcare practitioners and technical workers was $33.51 an hour, and the average wage for healthcare support occupations was $12.84 an hour, The Conference Board says.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which will release its employment statistics for 2010, has shown that the healthcare sector is one of the few areas in the economy that has seen monthly job growth throughout the recession, although that growth has slowed considerably since 2009.

In the overall economy, online advertised vacancies fell in December by 9,400 listings to 4,447,800, following an increase of 47,400 in November, and 113,700 in October, The Conference Board reports.

"The year 2010 ended with a continuation of the lackluster labor demand we have seen throughout the last half of this year," says June Shelp, vice president at The Conference Board. "The strongest job demand was in the first quarter of the year, but the rest of the year failed to show that employers were significantly ramping up hiring across the economy. In the last half of 2010, advertised vacancies for workers in production, transportation, and construction and maintenance occupations increased, but demand for sales staff and workers in food preparation and serving, which rose in early 2010, moderated. After a promising start, 2010 ended with the overall job market relatively flat"

The nation's supply/demand rate stood at 3.39 unemployed people for every advertised vacancy in November (the last available unemployment data), down from a peak of 4.73 in October 2009. Nationally, there are 10.7 million more unemployed than advertised vacancies, The Conference Board reports.