April 2024 Jobs Recap: Labor demand down slightly as job market maintains healthy balance

Key Takeaways:

• Active listings dipped in April, with a 2% decrease compared to March’s steady climb. April’s modest drop in demand is yet more evidence that we’re dealing with a strong job market operating in near-perfect balance—up a little last month, down a little this month—charting the steady growth of a healthy economy.
  

• Hiring velocity increased slightly with the average time to hire down from ~44 to ~43 days, indicating a slight increase of liquidity in the job market. It’s worth noting that hiring velocity is up considerably from the start of the year when average time to hire clocked in at ~51 days.

• 62% of occupations experienced lowered demand, with some notable exceptions in Construction and Legal Services, which saw a 6.1% and 4.5% growth in listings, respectively.

Ringing in the first month of labor demand data for Q2, our report will sound familiar to readers of this blog: the job market remains strong and operating at an atypical level of balance between labor supply and demand. LinkUp CEO Toby Dayton summed up current conditions in a post last week, “a perfectly balanced job market continues to power a robust U.S. economy and will do so indefinitely until such time as something, as yet undetermined, knocks it off its present course.”

We’re in an excellent position for steady growth, one we haven’t seen since the full employment environment that stretched from January 2015 to February 2020—62 months of consecutive monthly job gains totaling 12 million jobs, cut off only by a global pandemic. And while the continued vitality of the job market is making the Fed increasingly hesitant to consider rate cuts anytime soon, our take at LinkUp remains undeniably optimistic.

After three months of 2024 job growth totaling 830,000 jobs, there’s good reason for confidence. And while inflation is unlikely to hit the arbitrary Fed target of ~2%, our take is that the economy is operating at a level capable of accommodating a “new normal” of ~3% inflation. Whatever storm clouds there may be, we’ll leave you with this: the post-pandemic landing was soft indeed, job growth remains steady, and the economy is purring in a Goldilocks zone.

LinkUp's real-time job data provides an advantage in spotting job market shifts before official economic reports are released. Continue reading for our in-depth analysis of April's job data.

U.S. Job Listings by Month | January 2020 - April 2024

CLOSED DURATION

The entire U.S. economy tracks hiring velocity by measuring closed duration, or the average number of days that companies post job listings on their websites before removing them. As the average number of days a job listing remains live increases, hiring velocity slows.

The average time it takes to fill open positions (closed duration) went up slightly from February to March. But by April, it was back down to February's level of 43.7 days. This is very similar to what we saw in April of last year (43.6 days). It's worth noting that this is a significant decrease from the beginning of this year, when the average closed duration was much higher at 50.9 days.

Closed Duration of U.S. Jobs | January 2020 - April 2024

JOBS DATA BY STATE

Nationwide Trend: The demand for workers dipped in most of the United States in April. A significant majority (85%) of states and territories saw a decrease in labor needs.

States with Growing Demand: A few states bucked the trend. Alabama, North Dakota, and Puerto Rico all experienced an increase in labor demand, with Alabama leading the pack at 3.6% growth. Oregon, Washington, Pennsylvania, New York, and Idaho also saw slight increases, all under 1%.

States with Biggest Drops: The sharpest declines in labor demand occurred in South Dakota, Mississippi, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Maine. These states all saw a drop of more than 4%. South Dakota had the biggest decrease at -5.8%.

Percent Change in Active Job Listings by State (Month-Over-Month) | April 2024

JOBS DATA BY INDUSTRY (NAICS)

Last month, a significant decline in labor demand was observed across 74% of U.S. industries, compared to March reflecting recent changes in economic activity and employment trends.

The biggest drops were seen in:

• Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (-10.9%)

• Retail - General Merchandise (-9.8%)

• Transportation and Warehousing (Postal/Couriers/Warehousing) (-7.8%)

• Management of Companies and Enterprises (-5.4%)

However, there were also some bright spots. The Educational Services and Construction sectors saw the strongest growth in labor demand, at +18.4% and +8.1% respectively. It's important to note that the surge in Educational Services job listings is due to LinkUp's recent inclusion of more public schools in the database, rather than a significant government hiring increase.

Job Listings by Industry (NAICS) | April 2024

JOBS DATA BY OCCUPATION (O*NET)

A significant portion (62%) of U.S. occupations experienced a decline in labor demand, mirroring the trend seen across industries. *The rise in Educational Services job postings is more a reflection of LinkUp adding public schools to its database, rather than a big jump in government hiring. Here's a breakdown of the most impacted occupations.

Decreased Demand:

• Business & Financial Operations (-7.9%)

• Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports & Media (-7.2%)

• Transportation and Material Moving (-6.7%)

• Architecture & Engineering (-6.2%)

Growing Demand:

• Educational Instruction and Library (+11.4%)*

• Construction & Extraction (+6.1%)

• Legal (+4.5%)

Job Listings by Occupation (O*NET) | March 2024

LINKUP 10,000

The LinkUp 10,000 is a daily and monthly analysis that shows the number of job openings from 10,000 global employers with the most U.S. job openings in LinkUp’s dataset.

The LinkUp 10,000 dipped 2.4% between March and April of this year. This decline follows a positive trend that had been in place since the beginning of 2024. On a year-over-year basis, the LinkUp 10,000 is down 12.5%.

Monthly LinkUp 10,000 | January 2021 - April 2024

If you’d like more granular economic data or would like to look deeper into specific industries, occupations or companies, request a sample or demo of our data.

COMPANIES ADDED

LinkUp broke its record for the most new companies indexed in a single month by adding 1,537 employer websites to its database in April. The previous record was 1,063.

Contact us if you are interested in obtaining the complete list of recently added companies.

LINKUP MONTHLY FORECASTS

Get ready! Our forecast for the BLS JOLTS report is coming next Wednesday, before the official data release. This report provides valuable insights into the job market, including the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations across various industries and company sizes.

But that's not all! We also offer a monthly forecast for the nonfarm payroll (NFP) report, based on our exclusive RAW LinkUp job listing data. This forecast sheds light on potential growth or decline in job openings across the entire U.S. economy.

DATA DISCLAIMERS

LinkUp’s monthly data recaps incorporate revisions to previously-reported monthly data with the purpose of reporting the most accurate and up-to-date data points. For more information on what circumstances may impact data revisions, visit our Data Support Center.