October was an excellent month for online job ads in the core scientific categories, suggesting a healthy employment market, according to the Help Wanted Online report from The Conference Board. In the Life, Physical, and Social Sciences category, the
number of ads was up 8.6%, or 7,500 ads. That’s the biggest
month-over-month gain in this category — and the largest total number of online ads — since we started
tracking in June 2009. From September to October a year ago, the number of ads fell by 2.4%. This October’s online ads were up 26,900 ads — 38.5% — over last October’s 68,600 ads.
Totaling all categories, online ads were up
2.6% (113,700 ads) over September, the biggest monthly jump
since April. There were 4,409,797 ads in October, the most in any month since August 2008, before the financial crisis sent the job market into a meltdown.
In all science-related categories, ads were up 4.3% compared to September,
the biggest gain since March. The number of ads increased in every science-related category.
A more thorough analysis of the new report from the Conference Board will follow soon.