NEW YORK, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- The Conference Board said Friday its measure of help-wanted advertising, a key barometer of America's job market, was unchanged in November, indicating the economy was too weak to stimulate new hiring.
The group said its help-wanted index, which measures advertising volume in 51 major newspapers across the country, remained at 40 for the second consecutive month.
The board, which noted the index had not been in the 40- to 45-point range since 1964, was 45 one year ago.
Economists on Wall Street were expecting the index to remain unchanged during the month.
In addition to providing insight on the general strength of the economy, the report gives a sense of how many jobs employers are trying to fill. If that number is relatively high, it could mean there is a shortage of available workers and companies may have to offer higher wages to attract them. This leads to wage inflation, which is bad news for the stock and bond markets.
Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan talks about it often.
Conference Board Economist Ken Goldstein said, "The softening in the labor market through November reflected a weak economy. The Coincident Indicators had turned flat twice over the prior four months, while both industrial production and new orders failed to sustain recoveries.
"Consumer confidence slumped, reflecting concerns about the near-term direction of the labor market. And now we have evidence that hiring intentions remained as weak in November as they were in August. This suggests that the economy was indeed in a soft spot and far too weak to stimulate new hiring," he said.
"Even if the economy picks up early in 2003, it may take until spring before hiring gains some momentum. The signal from flat advertising levels in November is that hiring intentions will likely not be improving in January or February," Goldstein said.
The report showed in the last three months, help-wanted advertising declined in all nine U.S. regions.
The steepest declines occurred in the New England, where ads fell 8.6 percent, in the Middle Atlantic region, where help-wanted ads dropped 6.4 percent and in the West South Central region, where ads for those looking for a job fell 4.8 percent.
