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 December 3, 2021, they were 58% above February 1, 2020, the pre-pandemic baseline, after adjusting for seasonal variation. Postings were up 0.9 percentage points in the past week.

Line graph titled “Job postings on Indeed, United States.” With a vertical axis ranging from -60% to 60%, Indeed tracked the percent change in job postings between February 1, 2020 and December 3, 2021. On December 3, 2021, job postings were 58% above February 1, 2020, the pre-pandemic baseline. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 10.4 million job openings at the end of September in its latest JOLTS report. Job postings on Indeed increased 9.4% between September 30 and December 3. If JOLTS openings have grown since September 30 at the same rate as Indeed job postings, that implies 11.4 million job openings as of December 3.

Lots of postings for HR and warehousing jobs

Job postings in all occupational sectors are above the pre-pandemic baseline, especially loading & stocking and production & manufacturing. Arts & entertainment jobs continue to be on par with the economy average, highlighting what a difference a year (and vaccines) can make. With still so much unknown about the omicron variant, job postings growth in pandemic-sensitive occupations like beauty & wellness and hospitality & tourism remain below the economy average.

Table titled “Some occupational sectors have been hit harder than others.”
Table titled “Some occupational sectors have been hit harder than others.” Indeed compared the percent change in US job postings, between February 1, 2020, and December 3, 2021 across various occupational 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. 

As companies across sectors are increasingly looking to hire, human resources job postings have risen sharply and are now 118% above the pre-pandemic baseline. Throughout last year, hiring was depressed. Therefore, HR job postings lagged the economy overall, hitting a low of 56% below the pre-pandemic baseline in May 2020. But now HR postings are much higher above baseline than postings overall.

Line graph titled “HR job postings up sharply.”
Line graph titled “HR job postings up sharply.” With a vertical axis ranging from -50% to 100%, Indeed tracked the percent change in job postings between February 1, 2020 and December 3, 2021 with lines representing “overall job postings” and “HR job postings.” HR jobs are well above the overall trend.

Hiring incentives on the rise

Employers are eager to hire — and that shows up not just in the number of job postings, but also in what those job postings say. 

Employers are offering bonuses and other hiring incentives. The share of job postings that mention hiring incentives has doubled, to 5.0% on December 3 from 2.5% one year earlier. 

Line graph titled “Postings advertising hiring incentives rise”
Line graph titled “Postings advertising hiring incentives rise.” With a vertical axis ranging from 0% to 8%, Indeed tracked the percent change in job postings between February 1, 2020 and December 3, 2021 advertising hiring incentives like signing bonuses or cash. 

Job postings up across wage tiers and remote-work share

Job postings across occupational advertised wage tiers are well above their pre-pandemic baselines, but low advertised wage job postings have risen slower in recent weeks. We define low advertised median hourly wage as below $15 per hour, middle wage as $15 to $20.38 per hour and high wage as at or above $20.39 an hour. 

At the beginning of the pandemic, low advertised wage job postings, such as for loading & stocking and personal care & home health, recovered quickest and were often for critical roles as society shuttered at large. But during the delta surge in late summer, low advertised wage job postings started to lag middle and high advertised wage job postings. 

Line graph titled “Job postings by occupation’s median advertised wage.”
Line graph titled “Job postings by occupation’s median advertised wage.” With a vertical axis ranging from -25% to 50%, Indeed tracked the percent change in job postings between February 1, 2020 and December 3, 2021 with lines representing “low wage(<$15)”, “middle wage ($15-$20.38)”, and “high wage($20.39+).” High wage and middle wage job postings are nearly up the same amount.

Job postings are up in both in-person and work-from-home sectors, with high remote job sectors climbing the most as of December 3. 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 occupations 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 -40% to 40%, Indeed tracked the percent change in job postings between February 1, 2020 and December 3, 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 requiring vaccination rise further

Job postings advertising that vaccination is required continue to rise, now 5.4% of all US job postings on Indeed. 

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 4%, Indeed tracked the share of job postings requiring COVID-19 vaccine explicitly along a horizontal axis ranging from February 1 to December 3. In a different colored line, Indeed tracked the share of job postings requiring vaccination along the same axis; as of December 3, 5.4% of US job postings on Indeed advertise required vaccination. 

Some job posting occupational sectors, such as mathematics and software development, have over 10% of their job postings advertising vaccination required. Other job postings sectors, like food preparation & service and retail, have barely 1% of job postings advertising vaccination required. The sector variation may be from sectors’ relevant comfort advertising required vaccination in the job posting and perceptions of how it may impact job seeker interest. 

Table titled “Occupations advertising required vaccination vary.”
Table titled “Occupations advertising required vaccination vary.” Indeed compared the percent change in US job postings requiring vaccination as of December 3, 2021 across various occupational sectors, divided into sections “Higher than economy average,” and  “Lower than economy average”.

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, and November 1 are missing and were interpolated. The median hourly advertised wage of job postings is calculated by occupational sector for calendar year 2019. 

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.