Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Newspapers can’t get a break. Circulation declines, display ad declines and now a report from the Conference Board that help-wanted ads are at their lowest level since 1958.

Part of this decline is said to be attributable to business concerns about the economy and future hiring. The other part of the story is the migration of recruitment and job searching to online channels. Even when hiring picks up, don’t expect significant rebounds in newspaper help-wanted ads in the future. This is one more challenge for an industry struggling to define its future.

Recruitment advertisers are getting smarter about how they find job candidates. The days of running a few ads in the industry trades or the local newspapers to find your next hire are behind us. Online talent acquisition presents many new ways to source candidates from a global talent pool.

We are fortunate to be in a growing market with companies that are hiring. As we make recommendations to our clients we need to be mindful of this shift.

More Trouble for Newspaper Industry: In the Shadow of Services like Craigslist, June Help-Wanted Ad Placements Dip to 49-Year Low

The number of help-wanted ads in U.S. newspapers fell in June to a 49-year low, a private research group said on Thursday. The Conference Board said its gauge measuring help-wanted ad volume was 26 in June, the lowest reading since July 1958, Reuters reports. It was 32 a year earlier.

"There are signs that job advertising volume is edging a little lower, with very slight decreases in each of the past two months," said Ken Goldstein, labor economist at the Conference Board, in a statement. "Business caution about near-term prospects for the economy, and perhaps for their own businesses, may lead to a little less hiring this autumn. Plus, the online business is mature enough in that this is where help wanted ads originate and may never appear in newspapers."

Total online job ads fell 2 percent in June, the Conference Board said. Goldstein suggested an already-tight labor market and worries about where the economy is headed contributed.

Newspaper help-wanted ads were down in all nine of the board's regions in the last three months, with the largest fall, 24.6 percent, in the Pacific, the Conference Board said.

The research firm surveys help-wanted ad volume at 51 newspapers across the country each month.