by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Jacksonville-area online help-wanted postings rose 29 percent in April over April 2010, according to WorkSource, the Florida work force organization serving Northeast Florida.
“You can see a definite trend line upward,” said Candace Moody, WorkSource vice president of communications.
While the number of online job postings dropped from October to December, the general trend has been a rise in ads since December 2009. The number of postings rose 5,050 over the year to 22,171, said WorkSource.
Over the month, WorkSource reported an almost 7 percent gain in ads, from 20,818 in March to the April level.
“I’m very optimistic that companies are hiring again, and that the trend will continue,” Moody said Monday.
The top 16 online jobs advertised in April were led by openings for truck drivers. The other 15 included customer service and sales positions, health care jobs, office work and Web and computer-related openings.
The report is made monthly. Moody said data is collected by The Conference Board, and the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation has provided a subscription to each of the 24 workforce regions in the state.
The Conference Board, based in New York, is a nonprofit, independent source of economic and business information. It was founded in 1916.
“We value the data because it can be sorted by industry or occupation, so we can answer specific questions about hiring activity in sectors. We also get a glimpse of all hiring activity,” said Moody.
The national recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. Since then, online job demand in the WorkSource region of Northeast Florida has risen by almost 8,000 jobs.
“Labor demand, measured by online advertised vacancies, bottomed out in January 2009 in the region,” said the WorkSource report. The region has seen demand increase by 11,389 openings since then.
The state’s regional work force organizations are primarily funded by federal money and are designed to match people seeking jobs with openings and also to train people for positions. The regional organizations are governed by private-sector boards of directors.
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