Help Wanted Advertising Stabilizes

US help wanted advertising, which dropped precipitously during the spring and summer of 2006, appears to have stabilized during the fall. The Conference Board Help Wanted Index was essentially flat from August through November (the latest report), at a level about 20% lower than where it was a year earlier. (Taking online advertising into account would mitigate the decline, but given the normal growth in help wanted advertising over time due to a growing economy, the 20% figure gives a pretty good indication of the amount of deterioration.)

What this means exactly I’m not sure, but in my mind it tends to reduce the chance of a recession. On the other hand, it also tends to confirm the expectation of an economy too weak to please Main Street, and perhaps a little weaker than Wall Street would prefer.