Help-Wanted Ad Volume Off in January

Help-wanted advertising in the nation’s major newspapers fell sharply in January from December but was up from the year-earlier level, a business research organization said Monday.

Nationwide, the volume of classified help-wanted ads fell 4.7% in January from a month earlier, the Conference Board said in its monthly report. It said ad volume fell from December’s level in every region of the nation except on the West Coast.

Kenneth Goldstein, the Conference Board economist who prepared the report, said the hardest-hit areas were the “west north-central states and in the Mountain region,” where “difficulties faced by farm-machinery producers may be contributing to soft labor demand.”

The Conference Board’s seasonally adjusted help-wanted index fell 15 points to 138 in January from 145 in December but remained above its January, 1984, level of 123. The index is based upon the average level in 1967 equaling 100.

Despite January’s setback, help-wanted ads were up from their year-earlier levels in most areas of the nation, Goldstein said. He predicted that the “modest growth” will “help gradually to bring down the unemployment rate.”

A regional breakdown of the January help-wanted index shows:

- The index in the Pacific region, which measures newspapers in California and Washington, was 206 in January, unchanged from December’s level and up from 181 a year earlier.