NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 31, 2003--The New York Times Job Market Confidence Index dropped 4.9 points to 87.2 in July from 92.1 in June. The Confidence Index measures the perceptions of employers and job seekers of the job market in the greater New York metropolitan area.

July's Current Conditions measure of the Index, which looks at respondents' perceptions of the current state of the job market, dropped to 90.5 in July from 107.4 in June. The Expectations measure of the Index, which considers respondents' expectations concerning the future of the job market in six months, dropped to 89.4 in July from 90.3 in June. For these results, February 2002 served as the base month, with values equal to 100.0.

"For a long time confidence had been declining among job seekers while employers' confidence was increasing," said Carl Haacke, economist for The New York Times Job Market Confidence Index. "Now we're seeing a role reversal in which employers' confidence is declining and job seekers' confidence is improving. Some, but not all, of the decline in employer confidence is due to slow summer hiring. This summer is worse than last."

Key findings for July include:

• The percentage of employers who say they have vacancies they are trying to fill dropped to 33 percent in July from 41 percent in June.
• Employers also see the future as more uncertain, with 49 percent of employers in July saying they do not expect to hire in six months, up from 46 percent in June.
• By contrast, the percentage of job seekers who say there is currently very few jobs available in the New York area dropped to 56 percent in July from 60 percent in June.
• The percent of job seekers who say there will be more jobs available in six months rose to 30 percent in July from 27 percent in June.

For the July results, 501 hiring managers and 322 job seekers were interviewed. Interviews are independently conducted for The New York Times by Beta Research Corporation via random telephone interviews with job seekers and hiring managers in the New York metropolitan area. The survey results for each month include responses obtained over the previous two-month period.

About Job Market

Job Market, the print and online recruitment services offering of The New York Times, provides employers and job seekers with comprehensive resources to streamline the recruitment process. Job Market appears in The New York Times every Sunday and is updated throughout the week at NYTimes.com, where job seekers can find job listings, career-related Times articles, exhaustive company research, a resume database and valuable career resources.

Through the newspaper's national audience, which includes 5.0 million weekday readers and 5.5 million Sunday readers as well as the 1.2 million readers who visit NYTimes.com every day, The New York Times Job Market reaches a marketplace of high-quality professionals actively seeking new job opportunities or considering career moves. Each week, The New York Times Job Market issues research on industry trends and workplace practices affecting employers and job seekers in the metropolitan New York region. On a monthly basis, The New York Times Job Market releases its Job Market Confidence Index. The Index tracks current conditions for recruitment in the New York metro area as well as future outlook for the coming six months. Copies of Job Market research reports are available upon request or at NYTimes.com/jobmarket. New York-based Beta Research Corporation, via random telephone interviews, independently conducts The New York Times Job Market research.

NOTE: Job Market research is not affiliated with the editorial operations of The New York Times newspaper and does not reflect the views of the newspaper or its journalists. Source all references to Job Market research as: The New York Times Job Market.

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CONTACT: The New York Times Company Diane McNulty, 212-556-5244; E-mail: mcnuldc@nytimes.com Al Leach, 212-556-4483; E-mail: promo8@nytimes.com This press release can be downloaded from www.nytco.com and www.nytco.com-community SOURCE: The New York Times Company