U.S. employers in April added 290,000 new hires, more than Wall Street expected and the largest gain since March 2006, according to a recent WSJ article. The unemployment rate rose to 9.9%, a sign that more Americans are looking for jobs.
At the end of April 2010, the major job aggregation sites released hiring data and analysis, indicating slow but measurable growth. Below is a summary job report from Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com, and Execunet.com.
The slow job growth demonstrates some early signs of a recovery. However, job growth was inconsistent, effecting some cities, industries and job functions more than others. Indeed.com publishes a monthly report of where the jobs are, giving insights into which job market is strongest and which is weakest. Indeed's job market survey shows slightly stronger job advertising activity, demonstrating slow growth.
Indeed's April 2010 survey of job advertisements show the job market is strongest in Washington DC and San Jose CA. Washington has been at the top of the list for a while, as Federal government spending has been high. However, San Jose CA improved in April to sharing a 1:1 ratio of unemployed per job advertisements. The top 10 job markets are geographically spread throughout the US (with the exception of the Southeast US). Baltimore, NYC, Salt Lake City UT, Oklahoma City OK, Hartford CT, Boston MA are all at 1:2 ratio of unemployed to job advertisements. Seattle WA & Austin TX, both at 1:3, round out the 10 best job markets.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Detroit MI (#48, 1:7), Los Angeles CA (#49, 1:8), and Miami FL (#50, 1:9). Florida has the unfortunate distinction of having 4 of the worst 10 job markets - Tampa (#40, 1:5), Orlando (#42, 1:5), Jacksonville (#44, 1:6) and Miami (#50, 1:9). California has 3 of the worst 10 job markets - Sacramento (#46, 1:6), Riverside (#47, 1:7), and Los Angeles (#49, 1:8).
It's interesting to note that these ratios have been slowly improving month over month through 2010. This indicates that there is some job growth, but it's growing at a very slow pace.
