Online advertising for vacancies in Health Care and Technical occupations were the only bright spots in an otherwise disappointing job climate, according to information released by the Conference Board for the month of August.

Overall, 2011 is advertised job vacancies fell by 163,900 from July to August, 2011. This drop followed a previous decline of 271,000 from June to July. According to June Shelp, VP at the Conference Board, “Following a very strong first quarter, labor demand has fallen off in the second quarter and into the third quarter [of 2011], reducing the earlier gains.”

Despite the overall soft performance, there were some encouraging results in specific industry sectors. In particular, health care and technology showed increases in the number of online job postings of 26,300 for a total of 513,700. This strength traced to occupations such as: registered nurses, speech-language pathologists, family and general practitioners, and occupational therapists.