Help-Wanted Advertising Index

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The Conference Board Help-Wanted Advertising Index Declines

April 24, 2008

The Conference Board Help-Wanted Advertising Index declined two points in March. The Index now stands at 19, down from 29 a year ago.

The Conference Board is the global business research and membership organization.

In the last three months, help-wanted advertising declined in all nine U.S. regions. Steepest declines occurred in the East North Central (-20.3%), West North Central (-18.1%) and East South Central (-16.7%) regions.

Says Ken Goldstein, Labor Economist at The Conference Board: "Print want-ad volume has shown a slightly declining trend over the past half year. Data for online job ads has also started to edge lower. The cumulative impact of the housing crisis, financial market turmoil, higher energy and other prices is slowing the overall economy and resulting in job cuts and reduced hiring intentions — with the prospect that declines may steepen. The labor market is likely to get worse before it gets better. This is precisely the fear driving consumer and business expectations down to levels only seen during recessions."

About The Help-Wanted Advertising Index

The Conference Board surveys help-wanted print advertising volume in 51 major newspapers across the country every month. Because ad volume has proven to be sensitive to labor market conditions, this measure provides a gauge of change in the local, regional and national supply of jobs.

Latest seasonally-adjusted results follow:

	Mar 08	Feb 08	Jan 08	Mar 07
National Index	19	21	22	29
Proportion of Labor Markets With Rising Want-Ad Volume	39%	33%	43%	51%
Unemployment Rate	5.1%	4.8%	4.9%	4.4%

NOTE: The Conference Board will no longer publish the Help-Wanted Advertising Index of print advertising after July 1, 2008. The Index will continue to be produced for research purposes only. For more infor9ation, please contact Frank Tortorici, Director of Communications at The Conference Board at (212) 339-0231, or email f.tortorici@conference-board.org.

For further information contact:
Mr. Ken Goldstein
at +1 212 339 0331
ken.goldstein@conference-board.org