Help-wanted advertising rose slightly in February.

The Conference Board said its seasonally adjusted help-wanted ad index rose to 139, up one point from January and up 10 points from a year ago. The index uses the year 1967 as a base of 100. The help-wanted index, which measures the volume of classified advertising in 51 major newspapers across the nation, is sensitive to changes in demand for labor as well as general business conditions. “The rather scant increases in want-ad volume over the last few months suggest that improvement in labor market conditions will be modest in the coming months,” said Kenneth Goldstein, an economist for the business research group.