The Washington metropolitan area had the best prospects for finding a managerial job in January, but the picture there wasn't as a good as in December, according to the latest Career Cast/Job Serf Employment Index.
Washington showed a drop-off in hiring. Dallas, which ranked No. 9, had the largest increase -- 7 percent -- among the 30 metro areas ranked in the index.
The index released last week found that there was an overall 2.2-point bump up in managerial hiring from November and December's decreases in white-collar hiring for which the "fiscal cliff" was partially to blame.
"The impact of the budget battle was strongly felt in hiring at the start and middle of the month," JobSerf CEO Jay Martin said. "With a change of politicians, and total obscurity as to where the budget negotiations will lead this year, there is a lot of instability in the hiring markets."
Most of the January hires were in director and manager level positions, and the least new hires were in the chief- and VP-level positions.
Despite being at the top, Washington showed a drop-off in hiring -- by 7 points. It now leads Boston by 3 points.
"Long the forerunner of managerial hiring strength, Washington's hold on the top spot is slipping," said Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast.com.
The index gathers managerial job listings data from nationwide job boards, comparing the total job listings for each city to the job openings during the same period in 2008, which is assigned a base score of 100. Any number over 100 indicates there are more jobs open than in 2008, and numbers below 100 indicate there are less jobs available than in 2008.
The metropolitan areas that showed the most hiring activity for managerial positions were:
- Washington, D.C. - 143 (down from 150 in December)
- Boston - 140 (146)
- San Francisco - 112 (116)
- Seattle - 97 (105)
- Atlanta - 92 (98)
- Denver - 88 (88)
- Baltimore - 83 (87)
- Chicago - 83 (92)
- Dallas - 81 (76)
- Nashville - 76 (79)
On the less positive end of the findings, the metro areas around Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and Miami showed double-digit decreases in hiring activity (down 11 percent for Cleveland and 10 percent for the others).
Read more about the CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index here.
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