We regularly update this report to track the pandemic’s effects on the labor market.

 

Job postings on Indeed are a real-time measure of labor market activity. On October 22, 2021, they were 48.0% above February 1, 2020, the pre-pandemic baseline, after adjusting for seasonal variation. Postings were up 0.6 percentage points in the past week.

Line graph titled “Job postings on Indeed, United States.”
Line graph titled “Job postings on Indeed, United States.” With a vertical axis ranging from -50% to 50%, Indeed tracked the percent change in job postings between February 1, 2020 and October 22, 2021. On October 22, 2021, job postings were 48% above February 1, 2020, the pre-pandemic baseline. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 10.4 million job openings at the end of August in its latest JOLTS report. Job postings on Indeed increased 5.5% between August 31 and October 22. If JOLTS openings have grown since August 31 at the same rate as Indeed job postings, that implies 11 million job openings as of October 22.

Lots of postings for HR and warehousing jobs

Job postings in nearly all sectors are above the pre-pandemic baseline, led by human resources and loading & stocking. Pharmacy jobs have also risen as COVID-19 boosters start and flu season nears. Despite being on the other side of the delta surge, job postings in some sectors driving and beauty & wellness have slipped.

Table titled “Some sectors have been hit harder than others.”
Table titled “Some sectors have been hit harder than others.” Indeed compared the percent change in US job postings, between February 1, 2020, and October 22, 2021 across various sectors divided into sections “Better than economy average,” “Similar to economy average,” and “Worse than economy average.” Human resources and loading & stocking jobs are highest relative to baseline. 

Job postings have climbed in both in-person and work-from-home sectors. That’s a change from the start of the pandemic, when low-remote postings recovered first and strongest. The early pandemic shift to remote work in the pandemic created jobs in sectors that supported the stay-at-home economy, like driving and warehouse jobs, that aren’t themselves work-from-home jobs.

Line graph titled “Job postings by occupation remote-work share.”
Line graph titled “Job postings by occupation remote-work share.” With a vertical axis ranging from -60% to 60%, Indeed tracked the percent change in job postings between February 1, 2020 and October 22, 2021 with lines representing “low remote”, “medium remote”, and “high remote.” High-remote and low-remote job postings are nearly up the same amount.

Job postings recovering across metros 

Job postings are now up almost as much in large metros as in smaller metros. The gap between job postings growth in the largest and smallest metros is now only 3 percentage points, a far cry from the 15 point gap a year ago. 

Line graph titled “Job postings up in places large and small.”
Line graph titled “Job postings up in places large and small.” With a vertical axis ranging from -50% to 60%, Indeed tracked the percent change in job postings between February 1, 2020 and October 22, 2021 with lines representing small, medium, larger, and largest metros. Job postings increased first in the smallest metros, but more recently the gap between small and large metros has narrowed. 

Metros where a higher share of people can work from home continue to recover slower than metros generally. These are mostly large metros with high education levels like tech hubs and finance centers. Similar to earlier in the pandemic, job postings rebounded more slowly in these metros. Postings in these metros finally rose above the pre-pandemic baseline at the end of March, but still lag all metros job growth by 11 percentage points. 

Line graph titled “Job postings in hospitality vs work-from-home metros.”
Line graph titled “Job postings in hospitality vs work-from-home metros.” With a vertical axis ranging from -50% to 60%, Indeed tracked the percent change in job postings between February 1, 2020 and October 22, 2021 with lines representing “all metros,” “high WFH metros,” and “high hospitality metros.” In high work-from-home metros, postings in retail, restaurant, and personal-services jobs have suffered. 

Job postings requiring vaccination rise further

Job postings advertising that vaccination is required continue to rise, now 2% of all US job postings on Indeed. Nearly 7% of pharmacy job postings and childcare job postings included vaccination requirements in job descriptions and Washington state is leading the pack with over 5% of its job postings requiring vaccination.

Line graph titled “Share of US job postings requiring vaccinations”
Line graph titled “Share of US job postings requiring vaccinations” With a vertical axis ranging from 0 to 2.0%, Indeed tracked the share of job postings requiring COVID-19 vaccine explicitly along a horizontal axis ranging from February 1 to October 22. In a different colored line, Indeed tracked the share of job postings requiring vaccination along the same axis; as of October 22, 2% of US job postings on Indeed advertise required vaccination. 

We host the underlying job-postings chart data on Github as downloadable CSV files. Typically, it will be updated with the latest data one day after this blog post was published.

Methodology

All figures in this blog post are the percentage change in seasonally-adjusted job postings since February 1, 2020, using a seven-day trailing average. February 1, 2020, is our pre-pandemic baseline. We seasonally adjust each series based on historical patterns in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Each series, including the national trend, occupational sectors, and sub-national geographies, is seasonally adjusted separately. We adopted this new methodology in January 2021. Data for June 24-30, 2021, are missing and were interpolated.

Indeed no longer allows Colorado jobs that ask the candidate to disclose their previous salaries. This has a meaningful effect on our postings in the state of Colorado and its metros, though not on our national totals.

The number of job postings on Indeed.com, whether related to paid or unpaid job solicitations, is not indicative of potential revenue or earnings of Indeed, which comprises a significant percentage of the HR Technology segment of its parent company, Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. Job posting numbers are provided for information purposes only and should not be viewed as an indicator of performance of Indeed or Recruit. Please refer to the Recruit Holdings investor relations website and regulatory filings in Japan for more detailed information on revenue generation by Recruit’s HR Technology segment.