The number of online help-wanted advertisements for Hawai'i tumbled between July 2008 and July 2009, with 3,900 fewer vacancies being advertised per month.

That's one of the findings in the Conference Board's latest Help-Wanted Online Data Series, which also found the number of jobs offered though Internet ads fell nationally.

The report found there were 15,700 jobs advertised statewide during July, or about 20 percent less than the 19,600 offered a year earlier.

Hawai'i, like the rest of the nation, is going through a troublesome economic downturn that has produced the highest statewide unemployment rate in 31 years at 7.4 percent, and cut the number of jobs available in the Islands.

Still, Hawai'i's unemployment rate remains below the 9.5 percent national average, and the drop in advertised jobs is less than the U.S. average.

The Conference Board reported a 27 percent decline in online help-wanted ads nationally between July 2008 and 2009.

June Shelp, an economist for the Conference Board, said the online job figures and other indicators don't suggest a large bump in employment anytime soon.

"I think it is going to be a little tough," Shelp said. "We are not in as bad a shape, but I don't see that it's going to bounce back that quickly."

The Conference Board data also is in line with unemployment information released by the state, showing the job situation is more difficult on the Neighbor Islands than in Honolulu.

The Conference Board said there was an increase in advertised vacancies over the past year in Honolulu, rising to 12,500 ads last month from 10,100 last year.

The figure indicates a lower number of jobs being offered on other islands when Honolulu's rise in jobs is compared to the decline ads to 15,700 for the entire state.

The New York-based business research organization also reported there were 2.25 job seekers in Honolulu for every advertised position in June.

That compared to the statewide average of 2.80 job seekers for every opening.

Michigan had close to 11 unemployed people for every advertised vacancy, the highest total on record since the Conference Board began the data series in 2005.

The Help-Wanted Online Data Series measures the number of new online job offerings and openings reposted from the previous month on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller Web sites that serve niche markets.