Online job listings for healthcare practitioners, technical workers, and healthcare support staff fell in June, the third straight month of declines, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted Online report.
Labor demand for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations fell by 16,500 listings in June to 548,700. Occupations that saw declines included physical therapists, general internists, and family and general practitioners. Healthcare support positions fell by 4,800 new listings to 114,500 in June, The Conference Board reports.
The board's Help Wanted Online Data Series tracks more than 1,000 online job boards across the United States.
Even with June's decline in online job listings, there were nearly three jobs for every healthcare technician and practitioner job seeker, with an average salary of $34.27 an hour. Conversely, there were 1.9 healthcare support workers for every online job listing, with pay averaging $12.94 an hour, The Conference Board reports.
In the overall economy, on line job listings fell by 99,700 listings in June, to 4.4 million, partially offsetting the overall increase of 148,800 new listings in May. The Supply/Demand rate stands at 3.11, which means there were just over three unemployed for every online advertised vacancy in May, the latest monthly data available for unemployment.
"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.
In April, labor demand for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations fell by 28,600 listings to 568,500, while support positions fell by 11,400 new listings to 129,100 for the month. In March, healthcare practitioners and technical occupations grew by 3,700, and healthcare support positions posted 4,400 new listings, with the primary demand coming for physical therapist assistants, home health aides, nursing aides, and medical assistants.
In January, The Conference Board reported 78,500 new listings for healthcare practitioners and technicians, and 16,600 new ads for healthcare support jobs, as healthcare jobs led a strong first month of 2011. However, February saw online job ads for practitioners and technical occupations drop by 4,300 owing largely to decreases in advertised vacancies for registered nurses and occupational and physical therapists, while support positions posted a decrease of 4,200.
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.