Employment Index Shows Marginal Decrease In Online Job Offers

HARTFORD — The September 2012 Monster Employment Index showed a marginal decline for both Connecticut and the New England region, while a slightly larger decline was observed in the index for the entire nation. The monthly Monster Employment Index declined by less than a percentage point from the 2012 peak for the Connecticut’s index and remained in lockstep with the regional New England index.

The decline in the national index between August and September more than doubled the Connecticut decline, reporting in with a two percent decline, according to a release from the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, Inc (CERC).

“This uneven trend coincides with many other economic indicators that are showing a struggling economic recovery,” said Alissa DeJonge, director of research at CERC.

The Connecticut Online Job index for September 2012 shows an increase of 6.4 percent since January of this year. The New England index, however, has grown by nearly 11 percent and the nation’s index has increased by 12 percent over the same time frame.

Although the overall trend in 2012 has been in the positive direction for Connecticut, the state’s online technical jobs index for September reversed the trend from the previous month’s direction, dropping about one percentage point from August. This reversal is the fourth consecutive month with a turnaround to the direction of the index from the previous month.

This story of seesawing up and down is also the story for the New England Region and the nation over the last four months.

The decline for all three geographies, however, still keeps the index above any month other than the August 2012 peak for the year.

When compared to the index observed from a year ago, the marginal decline observed for all three geographies kept the index above the September 2011 levels. Connecticut’s index was 2.5 percent higher, New England’s Index was 5.5 percent higher, and the nation’s was 3.4 percent above the Monster Online Job Indices observed for each region a year ago.

Connecticut’s openings for the month of August 2012 were at 87.4 percent of the openings seen in January 2008. The New England measure for August was only at 81.7 percent of the rate seen set as the bases for this index in January 2008.

And as the graphic shows, the nation’s rate has been recently diverging in a positive direction above both the Connecticut index and the New England index so that it is now only 4.4 percent below the level observed in January 2009.

The Monster Employment Index is a monthly gauge of online job demand based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career websites and online job listings. The index is a leading indicator showing the willingness of firms to offer job opportunities; more opportunities assume additional job hires in the future.

CERC is partnering with Monster Government Solutions, a subsidiary of Monster Worldwide, to offer exclusive, real time Connecticut labor market data on a month-to-month basis.