NEW YORK, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- The Conference Board said Thursday its measure of help-wanted advertising, a key barometer of America's job market, slipped during November to its lowest level in almost four decades.
The group said its help-wanted index, which measures advertising volume in 51 major newspapers across the country, eased 1.0 point to 45.0 in November.
Most economists on Wall Street were expecting the index to remain at 46.0 during the month.
The Board noted the index has not been in the 40 to 45 point range since back in 1964.
Just one year ago, the Board said, the index was hovering at 75.
In the last three months, help-wanted advertising fell in all nine U.S. regions.
The steepest decline occurred in the Mountain region, where help wanted ads dropped by 21.7 percent.
Ads also fell 19.4 percent in the Pacific, 19.0 percent in the West South Central region of the country and 16.9 percent in the South Atlantic region.
Conference Board Economist Ken Goldstein said, "Even if the economy is slowly starting to turn around, the labor market is still in retreat.
"In more than half the country, help-wanted ad volume is about half of what it was one year ago. The overall level of the Help-Wanted Index is as low now as it has been in almost four decades. The trend in job advertising suggests that new hiring will be kept to a bare minimum through early 2002," the economist added.
