ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 29, 1995 TAG: 9512290056
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
The volume of help-wanted advertising in newspapers fell in November, the Conference Board said Thursday in a monthly report that attributed the decline to employer concern about future economic weakness.
The business research group's help-wanted advertising index, a barometer of regional job conditions, fell to 127 points last month, down from 131 in October and 134 in November 1994.
The index, based on a scale of 100, is derived from the volume of employment ads appearing in 51 major newspapers across the country.
The negative reading on employment demand comes a day after a pessimistic report on consumer confidence, also published by the Conference Board.
Overall, job ad volume has remained relatively stable in the past five months after rising throughout the first half of the year, the research group said.
Noting that initial unemployment claims have edged higher in recent weeks, Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein said ``there is growing concern that the economy's performance may decline during the next six months, spurring a new round of layoffs.''
But Goldstein also said that, ``All this gloom and doom has been overdone. There's been a fair amount of economic momentum in 1995, augmented by the big drop in long-term interest rates.''
Goldstein said he expects a return to ``healthy growth'' in the economy, suggesting that ``the place to look to as a bellwether is the Midwest.''
Regionally, help-wanted ad volume declined over the three months from September to November in six of the nation's nine major areas, the Conference Board report said.
The largest increase was a 9.5 percent gain in New England.
The biggest drop was in the East North Central region - Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin - where volume fell 9.7 percent over the three-month period.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB