June 2004
It's a MONSTER!
By
President of Workforce Associates
and author of
NetWork: Maximizing Your Career Resources on the Internet
Available online and in print from Author House
June 2004
It's a MONSTER!
By
President of Workforce Associates
and author of
NetWork: Maximizing Your Career Resources on the Internet
Available online and in print from Author House
Job seekers have a new crystal ball to consult for clues about the job market's direction and new career possibilities.
After six months of testing, Monster Worldwide, the corporate parent of Monster.com, published its third monthly employment index of online demand for workers on June 3rd. The index is based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from more than 1,500 websites, including a variety of corporate career sites, job boards, and Monster's own website, according to Marcel Legrand, Monster's senior vice president for strategy and planning.
And it appears to have good news for job seekers. The index, which measures the number of new online help-wanted ads, weighted by variables like the size of the businesses posting them, was first set at 102 in October, fell to a low of 86 in December and climbed to 102 in January, 107 in February, 109 in March, to an impressive 125 in April.
The April findings of the Monster Employment Index report that most industries experienced growth in job availability, with the largest increases occurring within the healthcare, finance & insurance, professional & technical, real estate, and retail trade industries. The healthcare industry remains the largest industry in terms of job availability despite a modest slowdown in growth over the past few months, according to the Index. "What you see is a consistent trending up," said Jeff Taylor, Monster.com's founder. "It provides a bright spot in a confusing economic recovery."
In addition to providing an analysis of the overall online demand for U.S. jobs, the Monster Employment Index offers an extensive range of sub-indices by industry, occupation and geographic region, including data on all 20 NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) industries, 23 occupational categories, all 50 states and the nine U.S. Census regions. The new index has detected particularly strong demand for workers in smaller and medium-size companies - those with 100 to 2,500 employees.
During April, occupational categories with the largest increases in job availability according to the Index, included community and social services, construction, arts and media, transportation, and buildings/ grounds maintenance. The greatest availability of jobs in last month existed within sales, business & financial operations, management and administrative support.
The Monster Employment Index shows an increase in online demand across almost all industries for employees in a wide range of job positions. Specifically, the industries with the greatest increase in job availability most recently included:
Five Top Industries looking for employees Professional & Technical Services Real Estate Healthcare Retail Trade Finance & Insurance Online job availability trended upwards across nearly every occupational category tracked by the Monster Employment Index during April, with the largest increase in demand for workers seen in community and social services, construction, arts and media, transportation, and buildings/grounds maintenance.
Most Wanted Occupational Area Community & Social Services Transportation Arts, Entertainment, Media Building/Grounds/Maintenance Construction In addition to these leading categories, the Index identified noteworthy increases in military, engineering/architecture, protective services, and education/training.
Regional demand for workers increased across nearly every part of the United States, according to the Index. The Mountain region (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico) posted the greatest rise from March to April, driven largely by Arizona. With respect to individual states, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Rhode Island and Louisiana showed significant increases in demand over the past month. As in March, California continued to lead the nation with the largest number of job opportunities in April. Massachusetts also registered a significant increase in job vacancies.
April data also revealed an upward trend in all nine U.S. Census regions for job opportunities posted online. Here is the Monster Employment Index for key U.S. Census regions measuring growth from March to April:
Region Mountain New England West South Central West North Central Pacific Mid-Atlantic East North Central East South Central South Atlantic "During April, the Monster Employment Index measured continued strong growth in online job demand across virtually every category that the Index evaluates — from industries looking for workers to professional and hourly occupational categories to geographic regions where employment opportunities exist," said Jeff Taylor, Founder and Chief Monster. "As the migration of help-wanted advertising continues to move from print to online, the Monster Employment Index measures the pulse of online job recruitment activity and the related employment opportunities. We are encouraged to see that the Index is tracking with broader labor market indicators, which show a steady improvement in overall job availability nationwide since the beginning of the year, and we expect that this tool will continue to gain increasing utility for U.S. labor market watchers."
Andrew Tilton, an economist at Goldman Sachs, said the index should be a very useful tool, given the shift of many employment ads to the Internet. "It would plug a hole in the current set of indicators that we have,'' he said.
One of the traditional indicators is the monthly index of jobs advertised in newspapers, published since 1951 by the Conference Board. However, as more employers move recruitment ads onto the Internet, this new gauge has the advantage of providing a more up-to-date snapshot of demand for workers. "Change in print ads is still significantly explanatory of the change in employment," said Kenneth Goldstein, the Conference Board's labor market analyst. Yet, he added, "There's no question that the market share has changed in favor of the Internet."
However, like an indicator, there are limitations as to what it shows. This new index has potential drawbacks. Marc Pramuk, an analyst at the research firm IDC, notes that Web sites may not capture many low-end retail and service job openings as well as new manufacturing jobs because potential recruits are likely to be less technologically savvy and less likely to go job hunting on the Internet.
The Monster Employment index is not the only bullish index. The Conference Board's help-wanted indicator is also pointing to stronger job growth. Mr. Goldstein expects the Bureau of Labor Statistics report to show 100,000 to 125,000 new non-farm jobs. "We're at the dawn of where we are going to start to get that month after month after month," he said.
According to Monster, all of the data and findings in the Monster Employment Index have been validated for accuracy through independent, third-party auditing conducted on a monthly basis by ARC Research, a Cranford, New Jersey-based provider of innovative click and brick market research solutions. The audit validates the accuracy of the online job recruitment activity measured for the last six months within a margin of error of +/-1.05%.
Additional information on the Monster Employment Index is available online at http://eIndex.monsterworldwide.com. The Monster Employment Index will report results monthly. Data for May will be released on June 3, 2004.
So, as you’re looking for a new position, please note these findings from Monster.com. They are useful in possibly redirecting your job search to another part of the country or to retraining yourself in fields that have tremendous demand and potential. You can subscribe and receive the latest Index online by going to Monster’s website.
You may also want to order Jeff Taylor’s new book about online job recruiting. It’s chock full of good information about writing electronic resumes and using the online recruiting system effectively. If anyone knows about how the inner workings of job boards, it is certainly Jeff Taylor and his personal monster, Monster.com! The name of the book, appropriately enough, is Monster Careers: How to Land the Job of Your Life.
Have a wonderful June! Keep your resumes and comments coming. They fuel my creative writing energies every month.
Jane M. Lommel, Ph.D.
jlommel@WorkforceAssociates.com
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