Source: WANTED Analytics 2.0

Hiring Demand at the same ten financial firms declined 11 percent in June from its May level,  remaining 35 percent higher than the February low.

Despite recent positive news in the sector, such as robust earnings reports from JP Morgan Chase and  Goldman Sachs, as well as from firms like Bank of America and Citigroup, the sector faces continuing difficulties in the second half of 2009. Losses by regional banks on commercial real estate loans are expected to top $30 billion in 2009, and 57 have already failed this year.

Online job ads posted by J.P. Morgan Chase constitute 60 percent of the total number of new ads in June, with the largest concentration of job ads falling under the following categories: Tellers; Sales Agents, Financial Services; Financial Managers, Branch or Department; Personal Financial Advisers; Loan Officers; and Computer Specialists.

The ten financial institutions granted permission to begin repaying TARP funds are: J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, U.S. Bancorp and BB&T Corp., American Express Co., Capital One Financial Corp., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., State Street Corp. and Northern Trust Corp.

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247 of the 1000 largest US corporations showed improvements in Hiring Demand, unchanged since last month.

On a Sector basis:

- Hiring Demand of "Wholesale Trade" companies (NAICS 42) is up by thirty-seven percentage points, posting a 24% year-over-year increase compared to last month's year-over-year drop of 13.2%.

- Health Care is the only sector to show consistent and robust growth in Hiring Demand.  Health Care sector Hiring Demand is up 26.8% compared to last year.  Last month, Hiring Demand was up 34.6% on a year-over-year basis.

- Hiring Demand of "Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services" companies (NAICS 54) dropped by twenty percentage points, going from -13.2% to -33.9% on a year-over-year basis.

The following table summarizes the sector highlights:

Source: WANTED Fortune 1000 Report

On a Company-by-Company basis:

- Bank of America stock (NYSE: BAC) has dropped almost 5% in today's trading, forewarned by declining Hiring Demand after three months of growth in both demand for new employees and stock price.

Source: WANTED Analytics 2.0

- Macy's (NYSE: M) is displaying growth in both Hiring Demand and stock price.

Source: WANTED Analytics 2.0

- McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD) stock is up 11.5% since March 9, 2009.  Last week, McDonald's corporation showed a significant upward spike in Hiring Demand.

Source: WANTED Analytics 2.0

© Copyright 2009 WANTED Technologies Corporation

Financials have been doing quite well recently – the S&P 500 Financial Sector Index is up 82% since March 6, 2009. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) has shown an almost fourfold increase in its stock price since the same date. Bank of America has consistently popped up on our weekly Gazelles report, even though Hiring Demand has dropped off a little since last month, possibly signaling the end of bull rally around this stock. Most of Bank of America's Hiring Demand growth has been in core occupations: demand for Tellers, Loan Officers, and Financial Managers has shown steady progression since January 2009.

The same story holds for JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM). Its stock price has more than doubled since early March. Hiring Demand for Tellers has been trending upward for the past five months, but dropped off last week. Momentum around the stock has also topped off.

Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK), which we featured last week for the first time, was a top gainer on NYSE last week and has continued to show progression in both Hiring Demand and its stock price. Its stock price is up 7.6% since July 2, 2009.

Finally, General Dynamics Corporation, which has been featured twice, has seen both its stock price and Hiring Demand take a little bit of a hit. Hiring Demand for its core computer occupations is also down substantially after four months of very positive growth in stock price and Hiring Demand.

© Copyright 2009 WANTED Technologies Corporation

During that chaotic period BAC acquired Merrill Lynch and then apparently attempted to get out of the deal in a process that prompted a Congressional committee hearing last week.  Along the way, it received $52.5 billion in TARP funds, the largest amount of any bank on the list of 615 institutions receving bail-out funds. Then this week, it was not among the 10 banks repaying $66.3 billion in TARP funds.

Nonetheless, it appears that the underlying business operations of the organization have returned to a level of normalcy when measured by the level of Hiring Demand. The chart to the left shows how the volume of job ads placed by BAC establishments fell by 75 percent from a peak of 24,618 in October, 2008 to just under 6,000 in January, 2009.

In May, BAC level of Hiring Demand has returned to almost 23,000 job ads, an apparent sign that BAC management believes the worst is over.

Meanwhile, today the Obama Administration announced a proposed overhaul of the regulations covering the financial sector. The debate has begun over whether these regulations have gone far enough to limit the size of financial institutions which became too big to fail.

© Copyright 2009 WANTED Technologies Corporation

General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) has increased its number of IT job postings by 63% in the past month. It posted over 3,900 new IT job ads in April, compared to 2,500 for March. General Dynamics has continued strong activity over the past three weeks as well, posting 2,200 jobs just last week. This uptick in IT job listings is also supported by increases in both the number of Management and Engineering job listings, although the volume for these two occupations is in the 700 range. Most of the jobs are located in the Washington, DC area, and most General Dynamics job postings have recently been seen on CareerJournal and JobServe. General Dynamics stock is up 70% since the 52 week low in early March of this year.

Source: WANTED Analytics 2.0

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) has started recruiting again to levels seen in mid 2008. After three consecutive months of around 5,000 new job ads, Bank of America has posted 8,277 jobs in March and 12,500 jobs in April. A similar number of open jobs were posted in May. Office and Administrative Support positions, Business and Financial Occupations, as well as Management Occupations lead the way. Most Bank of America jobs can be found on America's Job Exchange, JOBCentral, Job Target, and Career Mag. Bank of America stock is up almost five-fold from its 52-week low, experienced on February 20th.

Source: WANTED Analytics 2.0

Avon Products (NYSE: AVP) has more than tripled the number of open positions for Sales Occupations, posting 531 job ads during the week of May 17, compared to 140 in each of the previous two weeks. This spike in hiring comes from an increase of 100 on All Retail Jobs and 310 new postings on Regional Help Wanted, after six months of very low activity on that site. Avon stock is up 100% from its 52-week low on March 9, 2009.

Source: WANTED Analytics 2.0

The Dr.Pepper Snapple group has shown a consistent uptick in hiring since March, coinciding with a 100% return on its stock price since the 52-week low on March 9th. It posted 358 jobs in February, 394 in March, then 787 in April, and we expect that it will have posted possibly up to 1,000 new jobs in May, once the May data is closed out. The leading occupations have been Management and Transportation and Material Moving Occupations.

Source: WANTED Analytics 2.0

Finally, the US Army has been advertising for an increasing number of Health Care positions since December of 2008, and recent advertising has intensified. It placed around 2,000 to 2,500 new Health Care job ads per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, but posted more than 8,500 new Health Care ads in January, followed by 5,600 in February, 4,900 in March, and 5,400 in April.  We expect more than 6,000 new ads will have been posted in May once that data is compiled. Most job ads are for "Physicians and Surgeons, all other", which point to specialties such as psychiatry or specialized surgeons. The other most frequently posted positions are Registered Nurses, followed by Medical and Health Services Managers. Most of this recent activity has been on a job board called The Job Cure, a Health Care specific site.

Source: WANTED Analytics 2.0

© Copyright 2009 WANTED Technologies Corporation