Help-wanted ads decline

The Conference Board's help-wanted advertising index dropped 23 points in April, the steepest one-month decline in help-wanted advertising volume on record.

At 122 (1967 equals 100), the seasonally adjusted index now rests 33 points below the year-ago figure of 155, sinking to its lowest level since September 1977.

Want-ad volume fell in all of the nine regions measured. The most severe drops occurred in the Mountain and West North Central regions, each of which declined by 18.5 percent, followed by: the South Atlantic region (16.8 percent), the Pacific (16 percent), the East North Central (15.9 percent), the West South Central (14.8 percent), the New England region (12.4 percent), the East South Central (12 percent), and the Middle Atlantic (11.7 percent).

The index measures the volume of classified advertising in 51 major newspapers across the nation. It is sensitive to changes in the demand for labor, as well as general business conditions.