Real Estate Registers as Bright Spot on Employment Index

The real estate business is one of the few bright spots in the Monster Employment Index for June, the online job search website said. The index fell from 118 in May to 117 in June; it most recent peak was in September 2008 at 160. The year-over-year decline in the index, a gauge of online job demand culled from a representative selection of corporate career websites and job boards, was 28%. But the real estate industry registered the largest monthly increase in online job demand during June. Monster noted that the rise coincides with "marginally improved statistics" on residential home sales from the National Association of Realtors. This rise, it continued, suggests a pick-up in housing sector activity "may be imminent." The index for the real estate sector went from 50 in May to 61 in June; in June 2008 it was 105.