eQuest Releases Employment Index Results for April 2012

San Ramon, CA - eQuest today announced its employment findings for April, 2012 as published in its Employment Index, which can be viewed in its entirety at:

http://www.equest.com/news/employment-index-us/

http://www.equest.com/news/employment-index-uk/

The United States eQuest Employment Index showed a minimal gain in the month of April moving from 106.26 to 106.42. The April gain was achieved with a small increase in overall job postings across most tracked industries but led by a large jump in the retail sector. Energy and Healthcare continues to be the industries with the highest indices. The Government industry was again the industry with the largest move down in the overall index rankings.

The top three Industries in the Unites States for overall job posting volume in April were Healthcare, Energy and Biotech. Production and manufacturing-based industries continue to occupy the bottom of the Employment Index driven by a continued lack of a significant number of new positions being added to the marketplace and a consistent level of higher applicant traffic. Geographically, all states continued to show growth but the largest growth numbers were within states already showing better hiring conditions. The states with the highest hiring demand in April were Idaho, New Mexico and Washington while Missouri, Mississippi and Alabama continued to show the lowest demand indices.

The United Kingdom had a small downturn in April due to a reduction in job postings with steady applicant response rates. The net result of these effects was an increase in the UK Index from 98.36 to 98.12. While the number reflects a marginal overall decrease, the gap between locations that are hiring and those that lack job availability continue to grow. Index values continue to vary widely in the UK ranging from 116.61 at the top to 80.05 at the low end of the spectrum. Eden, East Devon and Ryedale again posted the highest overall demand values while Nottingham, Kingston upon Hull and Liverpool continued a more than year long position at the bottom of the regional list for candidate demand. Even during a month of a UK downturn, London continues to show strong positive signs of growth with increased job volume and reasonable applicant traffic.

The eQuest Employment Index shows the spending patterns of the Fortune 500 as measured by job posting activity month over month. The index derives its findings from algorithms based on the supply and demand of open positions posted to the internet relative to the number of responding candidates. A target index of 100 reflects relative balance in the number of applicants vying for each open position posted. The data to create the index is derived from thousands of monthly job posting transactions. Reporting includes analysis by geography and industry segment, using the US government’s Standard Occupational Codes (SOC) in major metropolitan areas, states and over 950 job classifications.

eQuest provides domestic and international job posting delivery, job board management and employment marketing services. With its global reach, eQuest posts jobs to any posting destination in the world, reaching over 180 countries and territories and thousands of job posting destinations worldwide. eQuest also provides comprehensive candidate source tracking analysis for evaluating job board performance. eQuest is one of the most recognized and admired brands in the human resource industry.