Big tech could be facing a slowdown in hiring. 

Some of the largest US technology companies are reducing job postings online, and it's coming as Adobe ($ADBE) is readying for its quarterly earnings call this week. Analysts tracked by Zacks Investment Research are looking for EPS $1.59 when the San Jose-based tech firm announces earnings September 18. 

However - potential cause for concern - as Adobe job postings fell 47% to 769 from their high point in 2019. It's not a story uncommon elsewhere in the tech sector - although it's certainly not across-the-board, either. But it came as Adobe shares outperformed market benchmarks, rising about 26% year-to-date. 

Next up is the other side of the coin - Oracle ($ORCL) is an outlier - and this makes its growth that much more impressive, because we already know the company has slashed job postings in China coinciding with the escalation of the trade war rhetoric between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. Oracle increased hiring outside of China, and globally grew job postings nearly 20% this year. 

Many other tech firms - including Apple, TE Connectivity and Arrow Electronics - have slashed job postings in China, as Oracle has done. 

Other tech companies - like SAP ($SAP), which is notably very much not based in Silicon Valley - have taken a hit on the trade war, but they're not switching guidance yet, for the most part. Still, trade war pain is making itself evident in other data points. 

But there are yet more data points signaling that some US tech firms are starting to believe the trade war is ending - or, that the impacts of operating in China are going to be more easily-mitigated in the immediate future. We'll have more on that at Thinknum soon - so stay tuned. 

About the Data: 

Thinknum tracks companies using 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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