October Hiring Data Shows Sharp Increase In Hiring Difficulty
Hiring in the US was much more difficult in October, according to labor market intelligence firm Greenwich.HR. The benchmark measure of availability of workers for new jobs – the number of job listings that remain open longer than 45 days – rose sharply in October compared to September and previous months.
The number of US job listings that were open more than 45 days was 64.6% in October, up sharply from 46.4% in September. This in spite of the fact that the number of open job listings also rose in October.
“We track how many listings remain open more than 45 days as a key metric for how difficult it is for companies to find the workers they need,” Says Cary Sparrow, CEO of Greenwich.HR. “This metric has been holding under 40 percent during most of 2019, but we’ve seen a real jump after summer, especially in October. The fact that nearly two thirds of all US listings have been open at least 45 days reinforces the challenges of the current labor market.”
Challenges attracting workers have become more pronounced across all sectors. The transportation and business services sectors led the overall trend in October, but all sectors showed sharp increases in their hiring times.
This analysis is based on job listing data from all Russell 3000 companies. It includes data from over 3.4 million US job listings. Job listing trends precede hiring trends by 2-4 months.
