US online help-wanted ads up in February, report says

NEW YORK, March 5 (Reuters) - Help-wanted postings on major U.S.-based Internet job boards rose 22 percent in February as normal hiring levels resumed with the end of the holiday season, a private research group said on Monday.

The Conference Board said its measure of the total number of unduplicated online jobs rose to 3.82 million in February from about 3.14 million in January. The February figures reflect the sum of the number of ads from mid-January to mid-February.

"Total advertised vacancies are up 18 percent over February 2006 levels, and consumer confidence, as measured by the Conference Board Consumer Confidence survey, reached a five and one-half year high," said Gad Levanon, economist at the Conference Board, in a statement. "Based on this, I expect that the national employment numbers, which are scheduled for release later this week, will remain solid and in the same range as the last few months."

The ADP National Employment Report, due on Wednesday, is expected to show the U.S. private sector added 100,000 new jobs in February, down from 152,000 in January, according to a Reuters survey.

The Conference Board said California had the most advertised vacancies in the latest period with 643,000, more than two times the number posted in Texas, New York and Florida, which followed with an average of 287,700 each.

Adjusting for the size of the state civilian labor force, Massachusetts led in offerings with 4.5 online job ads per 100 people, followed by Nevada with 4.4 and Delaware with 3.9.

The online job demand is strongest in management, business and finance, and in office and administrative support.

The average hourly wage for the management posts was $42.52, the report said.

The Help-Wanted Online Data Series measures the total number of online job ads posted on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards, and smaller job boards that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas. Until October 2006, the Conference Board tracked mainly the new postings.

Online jobs-posting data reflects both changes in labor demand and the shift of other sources of advertising to online media, which could result in an upward bias in the data.