Online advertised vacancies for healthcare practitioners, technical occupations and support personnel increased in April, according to a report released last week.
The Conference Board's latest "Help Wanted OnLine Data Series" reveals that online vacancies for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations increased slightly in April, rising 3,300 to 630,000.
According to the Conference Board, the current level of demand for these positions is in line with the monthly demand of two years ago, before the recession began.
Labor demand for healthcare support occupations also rose in April, with job vacancies increasing 2,400 to 128,700, the highest level since the HWOL series began in May 2005. The Conference Board said the increases reflect continued strong demand for positions like physical and occupational therapists and nursing aids.
Because healthcare is a broad field, the relative tightness of the labor market varies substantially from the higher-paying practitioner and technical jobs to the lower-paying support occupations.
In March, the latest month for which unemployment data is available, advertised vacancies for healthcare practitioners or technical occupations outnumbered the unemployed looking for work in the field by 4-to-1, and the average wage in these occupations is $32.64 an hour.
In sharp contrast, the average wage for healthcare support occupations is $12.66 per hour and there were over 2 unemployed looking for work in the field for every advertised vacancy.
Nationally, online job demand increased strongly from March to April, according to the Conference Board. Online advertised vacancies rose 222,700 to 4,150,000 in April.
Over the past six months, labor demand has increased by 870,000.
The "Help Wanted Online Data Series" measures the number of new, first-time online jobs and jobs reposted from the previous month on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller job boards that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.