May 2010

Well, the hoped anomaly encountered in April turned into a trend in May and we now have a New Normal rate of job openings and closings on par with many months ago.   The job postings are down a total of 40% from March.   The job closings were hampered by several jobs that disappeared in April and reappeared in May.   

As far as where the drop is happening, Amazon is down by about 50% from recent trends, while Microsoft is about on par.   A bright spot on the scene was the games startup PopCap that added 5 jobs to the postings.   Contract jobs were down by about 50%.  The inventory of jobs remains at a fairly high level at over 230, and about a third have been open more than 3 months.   

So, stock market - down; video game sales - down;  job postings - down;   coincidence?   

Don

About our postings:

Product Management jobs include the titles Product Manager, Product Marketing Manager, and a few Segment or Category Managers.    Jobs could be full time hires or shorter term contract.    Our Seattle “area” ranged from Bellingham down to Tacoma, though only a few postings were really outside King County.