Online job vacancies took a slight dip in March to 3,733,200, marking a 0.6 percent decline from March 2007 levels, according to the latest data from The Conference Board.

In March, there were 2.4 advertised vacancies posted online for every 100 individuals in the labor force, down from a high of 2.9 in April 2007.

“The softening in advertised vacancies evident over the last few months spread to more
states in March and, for the first time, annual growth turned negative for the nation as a
whole,” said Gad Levanon, an economist at The Conference Board. “It would not be surprising to see a third straight month of job losses when employment data are released later this week as well as continued weakness in the months ahead.”