Dive Brief:

• Job postings on Indeed are down 34% year-over-year through May 29, the company said in an analysis published June 2.
• That mark is a slight improvement from May 1, when job posts on Indeed were down nearly 40% year-over-year. Similarly, the site recorded a 28% year-over-year decline in the number of new job postings, an improvement from 45% recorded May 1. But the statistical gain in new postings is due more so to a slowing trend in 2019 than to gains this year, Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed Hiring Lab, said in the analysis.
• The downward trends are most pronounced in occupations directly impacted by COVID-19, including hospitality and tourism, Kolko said. But the pandemic has impacted job postings for other industries: software development postings are down 36%, for example, while banking and financing postings are down 51%.

Dive Insight:

Indeed job postings have experienced a dramatic statistical decline since the onset of the pandemic. During the final weeks of March, the site's year-over-year posting decline stood at about 15%, it said. Now two months later, that measure has more than doubled.

This coincides with monthly figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that the number of U.S. jobs fell by 20.5 million in April alone, and the unemployment rate stood at 14.7% at the end of that month. There may be limitations to this figure as the count of the unemployed captures only those who are actively looking for work and does not count workers who have had their hours cut or pay slashed.

The trend in Indeed job postings has improved for some sectors, Kolko noted, including dental, beauty and wellness, food preparation and driving. Postings have also picked up in some destination metro areas, he said, such as Orlando, Florida; Las Vegas; and Miami.

HR teams can adapt their hiring strategies to the current market in a number of ways. CHROs at companies including Accenture, Lincoln Financial Group and ServiceNow launched a free platform in April to connect employers furloughing or laying off workers with those in need of talent. CVS, facing a dramatic need for temporary and full-time staff, launched virtual job fairs, interviews and job tryouts with a particular focus on those workers furloughed or laid off by CVS clients.

Consultants with research and advisory firm Gartner included virtual interviewing as one of three recommended strategies for talent professionals in dealing with the pandemic. The firm also advised HR teams to focus on managing candidate and new-hire emotions so as to avoid reputational damage. Additionally, Gartner said organizations may need to look to internal mobility by promoting vacancies to current employees.

Those operating under similar circumstances might also consider shortening their hiring processes generally. Walmart said in March that it had shrunk its hiring window down to as little as 24 hours in length for associate positions eliminating formal interviews and written job offers, while expediting its screening process.