WeWork ($PRIVATE:WEWORK) is heading to public markets soon, signaling that what may be the biggest IPO of the fall.
First up - we can track where the company is hiring, by category, and over time - over the last 12 months.
The property sharing startup is worth an estimated $47 billion and the S-1 filed August 14 likely means a public offering sometime in the September to October timeframe. A look at WeWork's job postings data shows a company that is still growing many segments of its business - and starting to make reductions to other types of job postings.
WeWork is showing off all the signs of growth investors will want to see, judging by its alternative data. First, we can take a look at the segments of the company that are growing - above, its sales staff - and below, its community team. Sales hiring isn't at a peak, per se, but it's not far off. And community hiring is up more than 50% in 2019.
At the same time, the company is cutting job postings for employees collared blue, and white, alike.
The chart above tracks the reduction in job postings for building design and development fall 48% (also, we noted a decline in recent months for job postings for building operations - not shown) - and, the one below tracks the reduction in job postings for legal and finance professionals (legal, not shown).
None of this is to say that the company has taken its eye off the ball with regard to any individual hiring category as it closes in on its mega-offering. Our final chart - for now - tracks WeWork staff by LinkedIn ($MSFT) Employee Count, and WeWork appears to have grown total staff by 43% this year. So part of the job postings coming offline, may be attributable to their being filled.
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.
Further Reading:
- WeWork once kinda evicted us, but no hard feelings and congrats on the offering, guys
- WeWork shifts focus from small- to medium-sized businesses
- WeWork is cutting hot-desk prices in emerging markets before its IPO