Help Wanted Ads Hold Steady In July

By: Adam Geller, AP Business Writer (AP) Newspaper want ads, a key barometer of the job market and the economy, held steady in July, but the number of postings is still down substantially from a year ago, a private research group said Thursday.

The Conference Board said its Help-Wanted Advertising Index remained at 58 last month, the same as in June. That compares to a reading of 82 in July of last year.

The most recent figures signal broad weakness in the job market that has spread nationwide and across nearly all industries, said Ken Goldstein, an economist with the New York-based Conference Board. But the steadying of the index may be a sign the downturn has reached bottom, he said.

Taken together with other measures, such as a rising index of leading economic indicators, a continued steadying in want ads would signal that "it might not get much better real soon, but its probably not going to get much worse," Goldstein said.

Even so, the newest report offers little good economic news. It shows that help wanted advertising dropped in all nine regions of the U.S. since April, lead by a 21.2% in West North Central states including Missouri and Nebraska, and a 13% drop in the Middle Atlantic region.

"All major areas of the country, most of them with distinctly different industrial demographics, appear to be reacting in lock-step to changes in the macro-economy," Goldstein said. "This is not a typical recession pattern and suggests the profit squeeze is hitting every sector of the economy."

The nation's unemployment rate remained at 4.5% in July, its highest level since the country entered a significant slowdown in growth in the summer of last year.

The Conference Board's index is based on a survey of advertising volume in 51 major newspapers each month. The measure is considered valuable since such ads reflect demand for workers and changes in regional job markets.

In July, 53% of the markets surveyed showed a rise in want-ad volume, compared to 33% in June. The July index of 58, mirroring that of June compares to a reading of 60 in May and 65 in April.