Help not wanted: 100,000 fewer online job ads posted

A New York-based nonprofit research group says 100,000 fewer job advertisements were posted online in March. The drop has resulted in a decline of over 1.1 million advertised vacancies in the last four months. The Conference Board's monthly Help-Wanted Online Data Series measures the number of new online jobs and openings reposted from the previous month on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller Web sites that serve niche markets. The March decline follows a modest drop of 6,600 ads in February, but the figure is much better than the record drops of 507,000 and 506,000 in December and January.