The number of U.S. jobs posted online rose 17% in February month-over-month, reflecting more activity following the holiday season, according to The Conference Board's online help-wanted advertising survey. However, online ads were up only 3% year-over-year last month, the smallest increase since the online survey began in May 2005.

There were 3.9 million online ads in February, up from 565,000 over January.

"The softening in advertised vacancies is widespread," said Gad Levanon, economist at The Conference Board. "For the past three months, 75% of states had an average annual growth rate slower than the previous year. These data, along with the drop in the consumer confidence index from 112 in July 2007 to 75 in February 2008, suggest that the slow pace of labor demand observed during the last half of 2007 may even slow further in the upcoming months."