Online job postings in Southeast Michigan more than doubled in the fourth quarter of 2013 compared with fourth-quarter 2012, according to a Workforce Intelligence Network report.
The number of online job postings in the fourth quarter increased from 53,306 in 2012 to 112,940 this year.
The largest gains were in Oakland and Wayne counties: Oakland increased from 16,682 to 32,761, and Wayne increased from 20,907 to 46,038.
The largest sectors of growth were retail and hospitality (198 percent) and health care (109 percent).
The region’s top in-demand job postings were retail salespersons, software developers, sales representatives, registered nurses, and heavy- and tractor-trailer truck drivers.
Despite the increase over 2012, fourth-quarter job postings were actually down 18 percent from the 139,163 postings in the third quarter of 2013.
“We saw an unusually high spike in job postings in the third quarter of last year,” said Lisa Katz, WIN executive director.
Katz said that spike began during the summer months when retail and hospitality job postings jumped and continued to remain high through the rest of the year, which also contributed to the fourth quarter’s high numbers.
“I think that has to do with the economy doing much better, and consumers having increased confidence and spending more money,” she said.
For 2014, Katz said she expects IT job growth to remain strong and for the postings from 2013 to translate into employment at a rate of two postings to one job.
“I also believe we will see continued steady performance for job postings that will be much stronger than the activity we saw in 2012,” she said.
To obtain its data, WIN analyzes job postings on Monster.com, CareerBuilder and Craigslist, among other job sites.
WIN’s report can be found at http://win-semich.org/data-research/quarterly-reports/
