February Online Jobs Report Shows Steep Drop In Online Jobs Postings

“Jobs postings, job searches, and job applications all dropped this month following the conclusion of the holiday season, with jobs postings seeing its biggest drop since IA began collecting data.”

Christopher Hooton, IA Chief Economist

Washington, DC – Internet Association (IA) today released the February IA Industry Indicators: Jobs (3i Jobs) report, which presents monthly insights on the U.S. job market using data from national and internet-based resources. The report tracks trends in the traditional and freelance job markets and presents unique information on hiring, openings, and online income by combining original IA analysis with data from IA member companies including Thumbtack and Indeed.

“Jobs postings, job searches, and job applications all dropped this month following the conclusion of the holiday season, with jobs postings seeing its biggest drop since IA began collecting data,” said IA Chief Economist Dr. Christopher Hooton. “The drops follow our expectations based on IA’s historic data for the sector, which seem to tentatively point to a regular seasonality. A potential bright spot and interesting note in the data is the 3 percent uptick in income earned online, following several months of minimal change.”

Key findings from the report include:

• Online full-time (FT) postings dropped precipitously in January 2020. Full time postings were down 50.8 percent year-over-year and 60.6 percent month-over-month. Part-time postings were up 36.3 percent year-over-year and 2.2 percent month-over-month.
• Online job searches saw its steepest month-over month drop in January 2020, while internet usage to earn income rebounded after remaining relatively flat over the last three months. Job searches were down 6.0 percent, applications were down 1.85 percent, hirings were down 1.34 percent, and use of the internet to earn income was up 3.2 percent.
• The three top postings for full-time positions online in February were customer service representative, retail sales associate, and administrative assistant. The three top postings for part-time positions online in February were retail sales associate, customer service representative, and administrative assistant.

To read the full report, click here.

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