• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, January 3, 2006

The number of help wanted ads appearing online dropped in November to around 1.8 million--marking the first time since July that there were fewer than 2 million, according to a report released last week by The Conference Board.

The online November help wanted ads declined 9.2 percent from October, which had dropped 1.7 percent from September, according to The Conference Board. Overall, there were 1.21 online job ads per 100 people in the labor force in November--down from 1.34 in October, 1.36 in September, and 1.43 in August.

But those figures are more pessimistic than those recently released by online job site Monster.com--which show a steady increase in online help wanted ads last year. Monster.com, which compiles its own monthly job index, reported that the index rose to a new high of 149 in November--up from 134 in July and 117 in November of 2004.

The Conference Board, which also surveys job ads at 51 newspapers in the United States, reported that employment ads picked up in newspapers. The Board reported that in the last three months, job ads in newspapers increased in six of nine U.S. regions, with the largest increases in the Mountain region (7.3 percent), East South Central area (5.8 percent), and Mid-Atlantic region (5.3 percent).