More job demand online in California

Another small but hopeful sign of an improving economy: Online advertised vacancies in California increased by 32,100 in October, to 488,000, according to the Conference Board. The supply/demand rate, which is the number of unemployed persons divided by the number of online ads, was 4.98 - still quite high compared with, say, Maryland's 1.86, but California did see increases in demand for computer and math jobs and management jobs. From press release:

"In this slow economic recovery, the October rise is welcome news that the trend in labor demand continues to move in a positive direction, albeit at a very moderate pace," said June Shelp, Vice President at The Conference Board. "The October increase reflected a moderate rise in a range of occupations and geographically across the nation. The slow but steady upward trend of the last seven months points to modest growth in employment through the end of 2010."

Another report out this morning showed an increase in the Institute for Supply Management's factory index, to 56.9 from 54.4 (the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a decline to 54). From Bloomberg:

"Manufacturing is still at the head of this recovery," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group Inc. in Pittsburgh. "The numbers are strong across the board. It isn't just inventory building, it is responding to growth in demand probably both here and abroad."

Could this be the start of something? Actually, we've been noticing some promising numbers for a few weeks now, although it's worth noting that the first part of the year was also encouraging and then the economy slowed. These month-to-month readings can bounce around quite a bit, so we'll see what happens over the next quarter or two.