MNI DATA IMPACT: US Weekly Job Posts Improve to -20.2% YOY

U.S. job openings recovered last week after dropping off in the middle of the month, but were still down 20.2% from year-ago levels, according to data Monday by employment search engine Indeed.com.

Available jobs through Aug. 28 improved from 20.8% a week ago, according to a seven-day moving average. Both of those results are weaker than the 18.1% decline mark recorded three weeks ago. August's back-and-forth comes after three months of steady improvement.

Postings on Indeed have fallen sharply for in-person service occupations like hospitality and tourism, where available jobs are down more than 40% from last year's trend. Openings for many white collar jobs are also "far below last year's trend," Indeed's chief economist Jed Kolko wrote.

Openings for higher-wage jobs have fallen the most since March, now 27% below last year's trend. Lower-wage positions that fell much faster at the start of the pandemic have since partially recovered, down 13%.

"Retail and food service adjust their workforces in response to month-to-month or even week-to-week changes in demand," Kolko wrote in the report. "It is more expensive and often takes longer to fire and hire higher-wage workers." Industries like tech and finance often base hiring plans on expected demand in "future quarters or years," he said.

Positive Signs

On the positive side, postings neared year-ago levels in construction, retail, loading and stocking, and driving.

Openings through Aug. 28 picked up in local travel and tourism-heavy economies like Las Vegas, Miami, and Orlando.

Jobs have also come back more quickly in smaller metro areas, where postings were down 11% versus 29% in larger centers. But smaller cities "backslid" more in August and new Covid-19 cases in the U.S. are now higher in those metros, as well as rural areas, posing renewed risks for jobs in much of the U.S.