In the month of May, job listings with the term "remote" in their titles grew, despite an overall drop in job listings for the month. The change reflects moves by tech companies like Twitter and Facebook announcing that they would not just allow current employees to continue to work remotely, but also that they would allow new hires to opt to work remotely.
Between May 8 and May 25, the number of jobs (across roughly 6,500 companies) with the term "remote" in their titles grew from 1,290 to 1,720. While that may not seem at first to be a major shift, it does reflect the first job title growth category since the Coronavirus pandemic shut down hiring across virtually all industries.
From May 1 to May 25, overall "remote" job listings were up as well, if slightly, from 1,640 to 1,720.
Meanwhile, hiring across the board during the same period has been down.
Between May 1 and May 25, the total number of listings we track fell from 871,000 to 812,000. Overall listings recovered between May 10 and May 25, from 727,000 to 812,000.
Last week, we saw Remote job listings take off at Twitter following CEO Jack Dorsey's announcement to allow his employees to work remotely "forever".
From May 12 to May 25, the number of Twitter job listings that include "Remote" in their location field grew from 5 to 28, a 460% increase in just two weeks.
Moving forward with hiring in a locked-down economy is likely to force the hand of more American companies. So far, Microsoft hasn't picked up its hiring efforts. Hiring at the Redmond giant is down by more than 60% since March, with no indication that remote hiring has yet to be considered.
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.