November 6, 2020 by Emsi Burning Glass
A hiring binge of lots (and lots) of seasonal workers generated most of the trends in October job postings. With COVID dragging on, and Thanksgiving and Christmas looming large, Amazon, USPS, FedEx, Walmart, and others are furiously posting new jobs.
In other words, millions of Americans are still shopping—both online and in-person. And millions are still working their hardest to stock shelves and deliver packages across a stay-at-home-centric economy.
Let’s take a look at these trends in October job postings.
US employers added 4.7 million new job postings in October. That’s 33% more new job postings than we had before COVID, comparing October’s total against the January/February combined average. That’s also 19% over September’s new job postings. With continuing jobless claims falling to 7.2 million, unemployment has now declined to just below 7%. the economy continues to flicker back to life.
But it isn’t a clean victory…yet. Spurts in new jobs and job postings are great, but we’re facing a danger that probably seemed unlikely six months ago: not enough talent, which could lead to drastic wage inflation.
Lots of familiar players published huge amounts of job postings in October. The top industries include the postal service, couriers & messengers (“delivery people“), online shopping, and general merchandise stores, and food & beverage stores. Stores are stocking up on holiday food fare. Retailers are encouraging Christmas procrastinators to get a move on. And Americans are projected to spend more than ever online.
Occupations in healthcare, warehousing, and transportation are all posting for new jobs. But one occupation in particular stands out: sales.
In October, three sales occupations together had over 300,000 new job postings:
As we noted in a separate study, these types of professional sales jobs could be a good next step for dislocated Americans. Not only do sales jobs pay well, they also require many human skills (aka soft skills) that you might already have—especially if you’re one of the thousands who lost their job in hospitality. With a bit more training, you could find yourself ready for a career in professional sales.
We will continue to publish our monthly observations on trends in job postings and the economy.
Check out the monthly job posting reports: April, May, June, July, August.