Ridesharing companies - heck, just about all IPOs, at this stage - are taking a beating as of late.
Lyft ($LYFT) investors were initially ecstatic - shares rose to nearly $80 on the first day of trading - and have since crashed back down to earth. When the company announces earnings on October 30, analysts are looking for losses of $1.59 per share.
However, Lyft's job posting chart suggests the company isn't slowing it's growth ambitions. Its job postings have risen nearly 18% over the course of the year. What's more, is it's the exact opposite of Uber ($UBER), the bigger of the two ride-sharing companies, which will report earnings on November 4.
Lyft is hiring fewer engineers than it was earlier in the year (sensible for a company with a rating higher than 4.75 in the Apple app store), and more staffers in customer experience and trust and legal.
As for Uber, its job postings are down nearly 17% since the year started.
Lyft could possibly be burning cash at a higher rate, even as a public company, to catch up to Uber's scale - and that will be clearer after each announces results. But it's rare to see this type of disparity in two competitors' hiring, and it's a data point worth watching at a key point in the development of each app.
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.