Americans are being urged to stay home, bars and restaurants are closing their doors, live sports are postponed, large gatherings are canceled, and stuck-at-home Americans need something to do with themselves. As people look for options, streaming services like Hulu ($PRIVATE:HULU) are bound to gain new subscribers.

And just before Coronavirus sent westerners home, Hulu began a quiet shuffle of its hiring strategy in two critical ways: a technology categorical name change, and a quiet, slow move away from Chinese tech openings.

Between March 2 and March 6, 2020, the company dropped all of its jobs categorized as "Technology". During that time, it fired up listings under a new category called "Software Development". 

This new category is now Hulu's most-in-demand category followed only by "Marketing and PR". The change in recruiting taxonomy appears to be a way to attract new talent in the US. That's because many of the job titles in the new "Software Development" category are identical to those in the now-gone "Technology" category. Such positions include "Architect - User Organization" and "Principal Software Developer - Cloud DVR". All of the positions are located in either the United States or China.

What happened — and what's currently happening — in China does indeed appear to have played a role here. Right around March 2, when the job category was changed, openings in China dipped as they grew slightly in the US. 

Overall, Hulu jobs in China have declined in recent months, while openings listed in the US have increased. There are many potential reasons for this — most of which we'll not explore here — but the data shows that a new categorization and shift in hiring strategy shows that Hulu is doing what it can to ride out — and benefit from — America's largest shutdown in recent history.

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

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