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 February 4, 2022, they were 60.4% above February 1, 2020, the pre-pandemic baseline, after adjusting for seasonal variation. Postings increased one percentage point in the past week, with the recent January dip likely driven by the latest wave of the pandemic. 

Line graph titled “Job postings on Indeed, United States.”
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 February 4, 2022. On February 4, 2022  job postings were 60.4% above February 1, 2020, the pre-pandemic baseline. 

It seems like the worst of the omicron surge’s impact might have passed. New job postings (those on Indeed for 7 days or less) are at a series high. As of February 4, new postings are 82.2% above pre-pandemic baseline, up 13 percentage points since last 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 February 4, 2022, as well as the trend in new job postings (7 days or less) over the same period. On February 4, 2022, job postings were 60.4% above February 1, 2020, the pre-pandemic baseline. New job postings were 82.2% above pre-pandemic baseline. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 10.9 million job openings at the end of December in its latest JOLTS report. Job postings on Indeed decreased 2.2% between December 31 and February 4. If JOLTS openings have declined since December at the same rate as Indeed job postings, that implies 10.7 million job openings as of February 4.

Lots of postings for HR and software development jobs

Job postings in all occupational sectors are above pre-pandemic baseline, especially human resources and software development. However, plenty of sectors dipped during the latest wave of the pandemic. Food preparation & service, retail and hospitality & tourism all fell more than five percentage points over the last four weeks. These occupational sectors are particularly vulnerable to the pandemic, as many of these jobs are in-person and serve in-person consumers.

Table titled “Some sectors are booming while others lag.”
Table titled “Some sectors are booming while others lag.” Indeed compared the percent change in US job postings, between February 1, 2020, and February 4, 2022 across various occupational sectors divided into sections “Better than economy average,” “Similar to economy average,” and “Worse than economy average.” Human resources and software development jobs are highest relative to baseline. 

Job postings lag in lower-wage sectors 

Job postings across occupational advertised wage tiers are well above their pre-pandemic baselines, but job postings in sectors that advertise lower wages have declined nearly five percentage points over the last four weeks. We define job postings wage tiers by advertised 2019 median hourly wage, so recent wage gains do not shift this job postings grouping. 

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 now, low advertised wage job postings lag middle and high advertised wage job postings by nineteen percentage points.

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 75%, Indeed tracked the percent change in job postings between February 1, 2020 and February 4, 2022 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 February 4. The decline in job postings in in-person sectors is likely temporary and reflective of the recent omicron surge. Record COVID-19 case numbers create uncertainty around consumer demand which in turn dampens hiring. This is especially the case for employers in pandemic vulnerable sectors.

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 -25% to 75%, Indeed tracked the percent change in job postings between February 1, 2020 and February 4, 2022 with lines representing “low remote”, “medium remote”, and “high remote.” 

Depressed relative interest in in-person job postings

While employer demand for workers is well above pre-pandemic levels, there’s yet to be a flood of job seekers to fill open positions. The Relative Job Seeker Interest metric captures what jobs workers are currently looking at by tracking changes in job seeker interest in an occupational sector since the beginning of the pandemic compared with the average job. 

During the fall, job seeker interest, relative to the national average, shifted towards job postings with higher advertised wages and that were more likely to be remote. Relative job seeker interest in some in-person sectors, like personal care & home health, remains well below the national trend. Interest in construction is down nearly 28.9% and loading & stocking by 34.4%, as of February 4. For occupational sectors seeing below average interest, employers may struggle to find the workers and may need to consider wage increases or additional benefits, like increased flexibility, to attract jobseekers.  

Line graph titled “Interest in several in-person occupations remains down.”
Line graph titled “Interest in several in-person occupations remains down.” With a vertical axis ranging from -40% to 20%, Indeed tracked the percent change in relative US job seeker interest per post between February 1, 2020 and February 4, 2022 in personal care & home health, construction and loading & stocking. As of February 4 2022, relative interest in postings in these fields was down over 25% compared with their February 1, 2020 levels.

We host a subset of the underlying of 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, November 1, 2021, January 1, 2022, January 27, 2022 and January 28, 2022 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.re detailed information on revenue generation by Recruit’s HR Technology segment.