Amsterdam health and technology company Philips ($PHG) has already stepped up to the front lines to fight the war on Coronavirus - and now it's data is beginning to reflect how much Philips is doing more work on the global stage.
Philips has plans to increase ventilator production four-fold by the third quarter of this year, according to Bloomberg. Already, according to job postings Philips posts, it has added 21% more in 2020, a year it has already spent most of trying to fight the Coronavirus pandemic.
In addition to the broader look at job postings, our data reflects an early-year uptick in job postings in the Netherlands, Great Britain, the US, and India. Philips also posted a smaller increase in job postings to start 2020 in China - it's noteworthy, however, that the Bloomberg story that covered it's increased ventilator production goals also noted that Chinese factories are not yet running at full capacity.
In addition to the company's work, the separate Philips Foundation was an early combatant against the Coronavirus in China, where it got to work in early February donating medical equipment. It's possible that some of Philips' hiring spree is not dedicated to developing respirators - Philips also makes medical devices for monitoring vital signs and imaging devices used to view patients' respiratory systems.
There are plenty of drugmakers pushing to develop treatments and vaccines - and, separately, an industrial production effort to rapidly scale up the number of respirators available to Americans is unfolding for a number of other market leaders, even in other sectors.
Shares are still down 30% and Philips has forecast reduced demand for parts of its business, including consumer goods.
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.