Jason Blais: From the Recruiting Front Lines

Here’s the September 2009 Job Report, brought to you by JobsInNH.com. Each month, I’ll take a look at the labor market data we collect as the state’s leading employment website. This month, we’ll take a look at some key data points that illustrate a slow recovery during the second quarter. It’s also beginning to look like June will represent the bottoming out of the labor market in New Hampshire.

Let’s start by taking a look at the August state wide job posting numbers. At month’s end, there were just under 1,700 active job openings posted on JobsInNH, up more than 20% since June. During the month, however, only 1,430 new openings were posted, compared to 1,300 in June. As these number show, the job openings are being filled much more quickly than this time last year.

August also showed a 10% increase in the number or employers actively posting jobs on JobsInNH since June, though that number is down 35% from August of 2008. As you would expect, job seeker traffic to the website continues to rise. In June the JobsInNH website hosted more than 470,000 unique visits, generating over 2.4 million page views. While the visits are up more than 20% over August of 2008, the number of page views has remained level, as there are fewer jobs postings to view.

Next up, let’s take a peek at what kind of jobs are available. Looking back at the August numbers, one small glimmer of optimism can be found in the job postings by wage type. While the majority of job openings are for hourly wage positions, those numbers are shrinking slowly, while Salary job openings have been growing for two straight months, and now represent more than 25% of all job openings posted on JobsInNH.com. We also look to the job types to assess the market. Full time and part time jobs are both down from July, but still up significantly over June of this year.

The question on most people’s minds of course, is what jobs are out there, and where are they. As you would expect, the majority of job openings in New Hampshire are in the Manchester and Concord areas, with job counts more than doubling in both Hillsborough and Rockingham counties since June. While those numbers are remarkable, the real sign of recovery is evidenced by the fact that every county in the state showed an increase in job openings since June on JobsInNH.

The view of job openings by industry segment reflects the success of the government’s Cash for Clunkers program, as the largest gains were seen in the Automotive and Manufacturing sectors. Healthcare, which has become unusually flat since the end of 2008, is also showing renewed strength.

Need more proof that we’re on the road to recovery? Of the 70 job categories that JobsInNH tracks, nearly 85% showed an increase in job postings on the website since June, and of the 15% that had fewer postings, none of the losses were in the double digits.