Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series on benefits in job postings. Find more about overall benefits here, retirement benefits here, medical/insurance benefits here, and family-related benefits here.
Key points:
- The share of job postings advertising paid time off has more than doubled, from 16% in January 2020 to 34% in May 2024.
- Unspecified paid time off is by far the most commonly advertised paid time off benefit, accounting for 32% of postings that advertise a time off benefit of some kind, possibly because many employers package all leave types together.
- The share of postings noting designated sick leave has also doubled since early 2020, but still only accounts for less than 3% of total postings.
- Sectors with the highest proportion of postings that include paid time off benefits include those with a high share of jobs that require in-person work.
The share of job postings advertising paid time off is on the rise, more than doubling from just 16% in January 2020 to 34% in May 2024. But just because a company doesn’t explicitly note its paid time off in a job posting doesn’t mean that the company doesn’t offer paid time off. While there are no federal laws requiring paid leave, the majority of workers — particularly those earning higher wages — do enjoy some kind of paid time off benefit.
Unspecified paid time off is by far the most common paid leave benefit advertised, appearing in nearly a third of all job postings, but it’s difficult to know if this is because other leave benefits are far less common, or just far less advertised. If a company offers both paid sick leave and generic paid time off, for example, but can only mention one or the other in a job posting intended to attract applicants comparing job opportunities, then paid time off may very well be more enticing — why plan for a virus when you can plan for a vacation?
Of course, a job posting can mention more than one time-off benefit. While the chart only shows the share of postings that mention at least one benefit, it’s likely at least some postings will include more than one — hence why the individual shares in the chart below will add up to more than the total 34% share of postings in which any single time off-related benefit may appear.
Generic mentions of “paid time off” could also indicate a consolidated leave plan, where all types of available leave are packaged together. As of 2021, 45% of all private industry workers had a consolidated leave plan, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among those with a consolidated plan, 35% were part-time workers and 46% were full-time workers. While consolidated plans are intended for both vacation and sick leave use, workers may not be eager to use paid time off when they are sick, particularly if it is limited. The prevalence of designated sick leave in job postings has more than doubled since the pandemic, but the overall share of postings advertising paid sick leave remains low. The relative prevalence of unlimited paid time off — a popular perk offered to knowledge workers, at least anecdotally, especially in the tech sector — was too rare to be used in this research.
Advertised leave benefits by sector
The sectors with the largest share of leave-related postings are Veterinary (63% of veterinary postings mention at least one leave benefit), followed by Childcare (56%), Dental (54%), Therapy (44%), and Legal (41%). The majority of these sectors generally require a good deal of in-person work and may be less likely than more remote-friendly sectors — including professional sectors, like tech — to omit mentions of some assumed benefits that job seekers may expect from those professions.
Companies in heavily in-person sectors that do offer these benefits may have a greater incentive to explicitly mention them in postings, knowing that benefits aren’t always offered for these positions. When comparing otherwise similar posts, one that mentions benefits and one that does not, job seekers may be more enticed to apply for the job that mentions benefits. And job postings in every one of the sectors on the list of those with the highest share of postings mentioning a leave benefit were higher (as of May 2024) than their pre-pandemic norms. This is a sign that competition for new hires remains strong in these areas, and employers may be incentivized to pull out all the stops to attract as many candidates as possible.
The majority of the sectors with the lowest share of any time off benefit advertisements are also sectors with a middling or high proportion of roles that can be done remotely, and in sectors where job seekers may expect a certain level of benefits, and where employers may not bother advertising everything offered. Two notable exceptions are Security & Public Safety and Food Preparation & Service, both of which have a fairly large share of part-time postings. Part-time workers are less likely than full-time employees to receive benefits overall.
Conclusion
Advertising generic paid time off seems to be a far larger focus of employers than other, more specific leave benefits. Whether this is because sick leave is not as attractive of a selling point for would-be applicants, or because many employers bundle all paid leave into a single benefit, is hard to know. But after a global pandemic, it’s worth considering if a bundled paid time off approach could discourage employees from taking sick leave, knowing they’ll be giving up vacation time.
Methodology
We track benefits by tallying US job postings on Indeed that mention at least one benefit in the job posting as of May 2024. Data is not adjusted for seasonality. Overall benefit calculation is limited to one benefit per job posting, while the share of postings by benefit type is limited to one job posting per benefit type. As such, aggregations by benefit type can exceed the share of overall postings for that benefit, as a job posting can include more than one benefit type.
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 the 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.