Help Wanted OnLine^®

Online Labor Demand Falls Slightly in January

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The Conference Board®−Burning Glass® Help Wanted OnLine® (HWOL) Index ticked down in January and now stands at 166.0 (July 2018=100), down slightly from 166.2 in November. The 0.2 percent decrease between December and January follows a 1.4 percent increase between November and December. Overall, the Index is up 53.7 percent from a year ago.

The Help Wanted OnLine® Index is produced in collaboration with Emsi Burning Glass, the global pioneer in real-time labor market data and analysis. This recent collaboration enhances the Help Wanted OnLine® program by providing additional insights into important labor market trends.

Note: Emsi Burning Glass have instituted system wide changes to their data collection process to better capture when job ads have expired. As part of these changes, there is an increase in the number of ads that expired, and subsequently, a level change in the data series for Total Ads. The HWOL Index and New Ads series remain unaffected by this update.

Help Wanted OnLine® (HWOL) Index: United States, seasonally adjusted, January 2022

[July 2018=100]

Sources: The Conference Board, Emsi Burning Glass, Bureau of Labor Statistics

© 2022 The Conference Board. All rights reserved.

PROGRAM NOTES

Prior to 2020, The Conference Board constructed the HWOL Index based solely on online job ads over time. Using a methodology designed to reduce non-economic volatility contributed by online job sources, the HWOL Index served an effective measure of changes in labor demand over time.

Beginning January 2020, the HWOL Index was refined as an estimate of change in job openings (based on BLS JOLTS), using a series of econometric models which incorporate job ads with other macroeconomic indicators such as employment and aggregate hours worked. By adopting a modeled approach which combines other data sources with data on online job ads, the HWOL Index more accurately tracks important movements in the labor market.

The Conference Board®-Burning Glass® Help Wanted OnLine® (HWOL) Indexmeasures changes over time in advertised online job vacancies, reflecting monthly trends in employment opportunities across the US. The HWOL Data Series aggregates the total number of ads available by month from the HWOL universe of online job ads. Ads in the HWOL universe are collected in real-time from over 50,000 online job domains including traditional job boards, corporate boards, social media sites, and smaller job sites that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.

Like The Conference Board’s long-running Help Wanted Advertising Index of print ads (which was published for over 55 years and discontinued in July 2008), Help Wanted OnLine® measures help wanted advertising, i.e. labor demand. The HWOL Data Series began in May 2005 and was revised in December 2018. With the December 2018 revision, The Conference Board released the HWOL Index, improving upon the HWOL Data Series’ ability to assess local labor market trends by reducing volatility and non-economic noise and improving correlation with local labor market conditions.

In 2019, the Help Wanted OnLine® program partnered with Emsi Burning Glass, the new sole provider of online job ad data for HWOL. With the partnership, the HWOL Data Series has been revised historically to reflect a new universe and methodology of online job advertisements and therefore cannot be used in conjunction with the pre-revised HWOL Data Series. The HWOL Data Series begins in January 2015 and the HWOL Index begins in December 2005. HWOL Index values prior to 2020 are based on job ads collected by CEB, Inc.

Those using this data are urged to review the information on the database and methodology available on The Conference Board website and contact us with questions and comments. Background information and technical note and discussion of revisions to the series are available at: http://www.conference-board.org/data/helpwantedonline.cfm.

About The Conference Board

The Conference Board is the member-driven think tank that delivers trusted insights for what’s ahead. Founded in 1916, we are a non-partisan, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.conference-board.org.

About Emsi Burning Glass

Emsi Burning Glass is the world’s leading authority on job skills, workforce talent, and labor market dynamics, providing expertise that empowers businesses, education providers, and governments to find the skills and talent they need and enables workers to unlock new career opportunities. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and Moscow, Idaho, Emsi Burning Glass is active in more than 30 countries and has offices in the United Kingdom, Italy, New Zealand, and India. The company is backed by global private equity leader KKR. www.burning-glass.com