According to the Austin Business Journal, there good news for those looking for work in Austin in 2008.

The Austin area ranked as one of the top metro areas in the nation when it came to online job advertisements in December, according to a report by The Conference Board.

Austin had 5.07 advertised vacancies per 100 people in the local labor force, just below Milwaukee, with 5.31 vacancies per 100 locals, and San Jose, with 5.30 online job ads per 100 people, according to the report.

Nationally, there were 2.3 advertised vacancies online for every 100 people in the work force in December, according to The Conference Board, a nonprofit research organization based in New York that tracks the postings on 1,200 Internet job boards.

Austin also had the highest number of advertised vacancies in relation to the number of unemployed of any metro area in the nation.

A total of 43,200 jobs were advertised on the Internet in December 2007, up 19.7 percent from 36,100 in December 2006. The national growth rate of online job postings was slower -- 6 percent -- during the same year-to-year period.

In Austin, the number of new ads was up 17.6 percent from 25,600 in December 2006.

The Conference Board generates a monthly report of help-wanted advertising in the nation's newspapers.