May Summary

• The number of Iowa online job openings for May declined by 1.8 percent from April.
• Transportation jobs, entry level clerical positions, and insurance jobs recorded the largest percentage gains for May from April.
• Finance positions, retail jobs and customer service positions suffered the largest percentage losses for May.
• Iowa's WFI remains the nation's 4^th best for May, the same ranking as for April.
• In absolute numbers, the greatest numbers of online job openings were in sales, followed by management, and then healthcare other than nursing.
• As a percent of Iowa employment, the largest numbers of online openings were in engineering, followed by finance, and then insurance positions.

Iowa WFI.  AIM's May Work Force Index (WFI) improved to 79.0 from April's very healthy and revised 72.5.  The WFI is a statistically based measurement tool produced by AIM, a nonprofit organization in Des Moines, Iowa. The Index is a ratio of unique online job postings and the number of unemployed in Iowa (not seasonally adjusted). The WFI ranges between 0 and 100. A WFI below 50.0 indicates short-term job contraction while an Index above 50.0 indicates job expansion.

Fading and improving areas: The areas showing the greatest percentage improvements in on-line job openings from April to May were: transportation jobs, entry level clerical positions, and insurance jobs.  The areas recording the largest percentage declines from April to May were finance positions, retail jobs and then customer service positions.

On-line openings.  In May, the largest number of online job postings were in: 1) sales, followed by 2) management, and 3) healthcare positions other than nursing jobs.   As a share of state employment, the largest numbers of job openings in descending order were in: 1) engineering, 2) finance, and then 3) insurance positions.

State Rankings. In terms of Work Force Indices among the states for May, Nebraska ranked number one with the highest WFI. Nebraska was followed by North Dakota at number two, Kansas at three, Iowa at four, and Minnesota at five.  The state with the lowest WFI was Alaska, followed by West Virginia at 49, and Maine at 48.  Rounding out the bottom five states were Mississippi at 47 and Louisiana at 46.

About the AIM WorkForce Index
AIM and the Creighton University College of Business produce the AIM WorkForce Index each month to track the relationship between the WFI and the changes in the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. This type of information is of value to both the employer and the job applicant as they develop plans and strategies for participation in the local and regional labor market. For more information on previous WFI reports, please visit www.aimforbrilliance.org/wfi.html, http://business.creighton.edu/economicoutlook, or dol.nebraska.gov.