Most-Advertised Jobs: It’s Nurses (Of Course), But Truck Drivers, Too

Job ads don’t necessarily translate into jobs, but they do provide a look at where and for what employers are seeking candidates. In June, says Wanted Analytics, registered nurses were the most advertised for occupation in the U.S.

Every month, Wanted analyzes thousands of web sites, tabulating the totals and classifying each ad by job type and title. Last month, there were 246,322 help wanted ads online for RNs. General medical and surgical hospitals were the heaviest advertisers — and that goes for all types of jobs, not just nurses. They posted 96,557 open positions during the month.

Demand for RNs, which slackened a few years ago, is on the rise. Wanted says there were 22.8 percent more ads for nurses in June than in June 2011.

The big challenge, as always, is finding talent

The health care industry has been one of the consistent growth areas almost throughout the entire recession. In June, health care added 13,000 positions reported the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nursing and residential facilities and hospitals added a combined 8,200 jobs.

Surprisingly, Wanted says ads for truck drivers were the second most common ad online in June. The 145,004 ads represent a 23.7 percent increase from a year ago. That’s consistent with the transportation sector as a whole, which, the BLS says, added 72,600 jobs in a year. Truck transporation accounted for 40,300 of those new jobs.

Data is one thing; making wise use of it is another. What just these two examples show (and there are plenty of others when you look just at the Wanted numbers) is where opportunity lies. Every recruiter knows that health care is growing faster than every other industry segment. The challenge is finding talent.

A few years ago, during an ideas roundtable, one of the agencies there explained how they had sent a flier, followed up by a postcard inviting the nurses in the area to a free seminar that offered continuing ed credits. The seminar was specific to the type of specialty for which the agency had recurring needs. There were about 40 attendees, all of whom filled out a questionnaire, which became the basis for developing call sheets.

Expectations are that the demand for nurses (and other health care workers) will continue well into the future. Ditto for software engineers and computer support specialists, which also made Wanted’s top 10 ads list. However, among recruiters and staffing firms, there’s already plenty of competition for candidates and job orders in these areas.

A current need for 200,000 truck drivers

So consider branching into other, growing sectors; truck drivers, for instance. According to David Heller, director of safety and policy at the American Truckload Carriers Association, there’s a current need for 200,000 drivers. A study by Avatar Fleet, a management and trucking industry recruitment consultant, put the cost of turnover at $12,000 per driver in 2010.

While trucking companies may not be the most lucrative of employers for independent recruiters, with rising demand comes rising salaries and the potential for a supplemental income stream in an area where the competition from other outside recruiters is far less keen.

Plus, trucking companies, which made Wanted’s list of the industries with the most online jobs in June, are becoming more aggressive in their own recruiting. They’ve put help-wanted ads on their fleet vehicles, offered free training, newer trucks for experienced drivers, and, now, signing bonuses of $1,000 or more.

Even if trucking isn’t in your future, leveraging data such as Wanted’s near-daily releases can help you find little tapped niches where you can grow business.