A monthly gauge of online labor demand in the United States slid in July from June but still posted year-over-year growth, the operator of a job search website said on Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

Monster Worldwide Inc, an online careers and recruiting firm, said its U.S. Employment Index rose 2 percent in July from a year earlier but was down from June as growth in transportation and warehousing recruitment slowed.

The Monster Employment Index, launched in 2004, gauges U.S. job demand based on millions of employer job postings on career listings and websites.

For the month of July, 15 of the 20 monitored industries showed growth year-over-year. Agriculture, forestry and fishing bounded to the top of the sector rankings with 19 percent growth, replacing June's leader, transportation and warehousing, which moderated to 11 percent.

Monster noted Friday transportation and warehousing's slowdown in formerly fast-expanding recruitment areas like operations research, assorted-transport management and information-technology occupations. Truck and heavy-freight drivers remains the largest single occupational recruitment area for the sector.

Growth in the wholesale trade has tapered in each month since April, somewhat counter to seasonal precedent for the sector, and is now up 10 percent from the year-ago period. Retail trade by contrast has held relatively steady, despite the recent months of stagnation in the Department of Commerce's retail sales figures, and is up 9 percent for the period as is health care and social assistance.

The sharpest decline was seen in job postings for public-administration positions, down 19 percent. Educational services saw a 10 percent decline while accommodation and food services fell 4 percent.

The Monster Employment index is a monthly analysis based on a selection of corporate career sites and job boards. The margin of error is about plus or minus 1 percent.

To obtain a full copy of the Monster Employment Index U.S. report for July 2012, and to access current individual data charts for each of the 28 metro markets tracked, click here. Data for the month of August will be released on Sept. 7, 2012.