Dive Brief:

• As COVID-19 vaccination requirements sprout up among U.S. workplaces, job postings are beginning to reflect employers' shift on the subject, according to an August job data analysis by Indeed.
• The company found job postings on its site requiring vaccination explicitly against COVID-19 had increased 34% by the end of the first week of August compared to one month prior. Postings requiring vaccination generally were up 90% over the same period.
• The increases occurred in fields outside of industries, such as healthcare services, that saw earlier adoption of vaccination requirements. For example, vaccination requirements for software development job postings increased from 3.5 postings per million in February to 437.9 job postings per million in July. Indeed recorded similarly large increases in the accounting, retail and marketing sectors.

Dive Insight:

The news is accompanied by a series of developments in recent weeks as the nation's vaccination rate slightly increased in the past month. As of Aug. 22, 51% of the U.S. population was fully vaccinated, up from 48% on July 22, according to online research platform Our World in Data.

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the first COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, for use in individuals 16 years and older. The vaccine also is available to children ages 12 to 15 under emergency use authorization. Shortly after the FDA's decision, President Joe Biden called on companies to "step up with vaccine requirements," according to a Politico report.

Employers in several industries have already obliged; Tyson Foods, Walmart and Microsoft are among those that have instituted vaccination requirements for certain workers returning to in-person work.

Moreover, employers have been enforcing those requirements for those who refuse. A CNN reporter shared quotes from the company's president stating that it had fired three employees who violated its vaccination policy. In Texas, a federal judge ruled in favor of a hospital system sued by a group of employees who refused to comply with its vaccination requirement.

Legal sources who recently spoke to HR Dive indicated that employers considering vaccine mandates might need to determine exact requirements around when employees must be vaccinated, whether they will be compensated for the costs associated with getting vaccinated and how they may request an accommodation, if applicable.

Employers also may need to determine how they will discipline employees who refuse vaccination but do not do so on the basis of disability or sincerely held religious belief. Sources have described terminations for unvaccinated employees as a risky option, but one that may be on the table as with other policy violations.