The Conference Board Help-Wanted Advertising Index — a key measure of job offerings in major newspapers across America — increased one point in September and now stands at 24, the Conference Board said, sister site MarketingCharts reports.

The Index was 29 one year ago, 32 at the beginning of 2007, and 23 in August.

In the last three months, help-wanted advertising declined in eight of the nine US regions.

Largest declines occurred in the New England (-12.0 percent), East North Central (-10.8 percent), West North Central (-10.5 percent) and South Atlantic (-10.5 percent) regions.

"The latest numbers on the job market suggest it was slower this summer than earlier this year, but not losing more steam heading into the fall and winter months," said Ken Goldstein, labor economist at The Conference Board.

"Some areas have cooled off, but there is no sign that regional labor market problems are in the early stages of coalescing into a national downtrend," he added.

"Simply put, the labor market is slow, but not slowing."

Online Advertised Job Vacancies

In September there were 4,270,000 online advertised vacancies, an increase of 165,200 - or 4 percent -from the August level, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series.

There were 2.78 advertised vacancies online for every 100 persons in the labor force in September.

About the Index: The Conference Board surveys help-wanted print advertising volume in 51 major newspapers across the country every month. Because ad volume has proven to be sensitive to labor market conditions, this measure provides a gauge of change in the local, regional and national supply of jobs.