US online job ads fell by 79,200 in December to a total of more than 5.17 million, according to The Conference Board’s report on online jobs ads released today. The decrease follows a gain of 170,200 job ads in November.

“Labor demand in 2014 continued its steady growth pattern to new series highs,” said Gad Levanon, managing director of macroeconomic and labor market research at The Conference Board. “Online labor demand quickly rebounded from the recession and surpassed the pre-recession series high in early 2012. In the three years since then, the level of online labor demand has increased further by about 20 percent.”

All occupations except healthcare practitioners and technical, management, and computer and mathematical occupations posted declines in December. The largest decline in December was in office and administrative support ads, which decreased 19,400 to 557,900, largely due to decreased demand for customer service representatives.