The number of U.S. jobs posted online fell by 70,200, or 1.6%, in November to 4.4 million, according to The Conference Board's measure of online help-wanted ads.

"Online advertised vacancies began slipping in mid-2007, some six months before the official beginning of the recession, and are now at levels that are over a half million below the May 2007 peak," said Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board. "Some of the largest current decline is in business, financial and management occupations, but labor demand is down as well in a wide range of other jobs such as sales, food service, transportation and repair. Healthcare workers, however, are still in demand."