Not a lot of people are traveling right now. An infectious disease that turned into a global pandemic will rightfully make people want to not get on a crowded airplane and fly to a destination in a populated airport. So with most travel essentially stopped in the short term, there isn't a need to buy luggage.

You guessed it, this is a major problem for luggage startup Away ($PRIVATE:AWAYTRAVEL).  And that's coming after the whole Slack CEO debacle that was written about last fall.

Away's job postings started to dip below triple digits in October, but leveled out at the start of 2020. It wasn't until very recently that things just went south, and now Away is barely hiring anyone new at all. From the high seen in September to now, those six months have seen a 77% drop in job openings at the startup.

The last three months saw a 9% increase in employees, which means not all of the job listings being pulled off the Away website were defensive, some of those positions were actually filled. Just not nearly the majority, so Away is clearly doing some recalculations during the Coronavirus panic.

Twitter followers (not shown here) and Facebook likes have flattened completely, and the 'Talking About' count for Away luggage fell 90%. No one online is talking about buying new luggage, because no one is really planning on going anywhere since a lot of people are stuck in their homes. Let's hope things get better in the world sooner rather than later.

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. 

Further Reading: 

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