Health care and tech employers continued to set the pace for Sacramento online job postings in May, but little has changed for many area job seekers, according to employment website SimplyHired.com.
Sutter Health, Catholic Healthcare West and Intel continued to report month-over-month increases in job postings in May, according to SimplyHired's May U.S. Employment Trends Report, released Wednesday.
Sutter Health had the most postings in May with 740, a 12 percent increase from April; but CHW saw the sharpest percentage increase, a 25 percent jump, with 581 Web postings.
Intel's postings rallied after a down April, rising 13 percent to 495 job postings.
Even with the increase in online postings, Sacramento job seekers still outnumber ads by a 7-1 ratio, among the highest in the survey.
Sacramento joins Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Las Vegas with the highest gap between job seekers and job postings among the 25 U.S. metropolitan areas surveyed in the May report.
Los Angeles, Detroit and Orlando, Fla., followed with five job seekers for every online job post.
But in an indicator of how competitive the job market remains, the national ratio also sat at 5-to-1 in May, compared with six unemployed for every online opening in April.
Sacramento online job openings crept up just 0.8 percent in May compared with April after a 9 percent increase in April from March, according to the report, but May postings year-over-year in Sacramento rose by more than 34 percent.
SimplyHired.com tracks job-posting activity by culling information from thousands of online job boards, newspapers and search engines, along with U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The survey can be found at blog.simplyhired.com
Job Corps safety fair
Sacramento Job Corps will mark National Safety Month with its safety fair on Wednesday.
The third annual event, from 12:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. at the Job Corps Center, 3100 Meadowview Road in Sacramento, will emphasize the safety habits young workers need to have on a job site.
Students will learn and demonstrate how to guard against heat- related illnesses and how to safely operate tools and machinery, among other safety tips.
"One of the things we preach is 'safety first,' " said Job Corps business community liaison Brian Broadway. "We really want to emphasize that piece and increase awareness."
Along with workplace safety demonstrations by Job Corps students and staff, U.S. Department of Labor and city of Sacramento officials will also be on hand to discuss worker safety.
About 500 young people are enrolled at the Meadowview campus, preparing for work in the construction trades, landscaping and facilities maintenance among other jobs.
Most are OSHA-certified, an important addition once the students head into the work world, Broadway said.
Safety on the job is especially a concern for young workers and their employers.
More than 139,000 workers ages 14 to 24 were injured at work in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the latest year information was available.
The Labor Department estimates about 146,000 young workers sustain work-related injuries and illnesses each year.
"The biggest concern of any employer is loss of time on the job" due to a workplace injury," Broadway said.
"We reassure employers that they have these (safety) skills and make sure the students have as much training as possible."
For more information, contact broadway.brian@jobcorps.org or (916) 394-4307.
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