This Week in Jobs Data: Boeing vs. Airbus, Amazon, Turo, Figma, Luxury Brands

Top Story:

Airbus Job Openings Up 35% as European Manufacturer Edges Out Boeing in Q1

Airbus Job Openings beating Boeing’s by 70% since 9/24

Airbus delivered 136 commercial aircraft in Q1 2025, narrowly outpacing Boeing's 130 deliveries after ramping up to 71 deliveries in March. The tight competition between the manufacturers shows Boeing improving output while Airbus grapples with supplier challenges.

Our data reveals hiring up 35% at Europe's premier aircraft manufacturer since September, while Boeing's job openings dropped 35% over the same period. The divergence in labor demand provides a leading indicator of the production capacity battle playing out between these aerospace giants.

On the Slump:

Amazon Slashes China Jobs by 55% in Tariff Retreat

Amazon Daily Active Listings down 55% in China since August peak

Amazon has canceled orders for multiple products made in China and other Asian countries following President Trump's April 2 announcement of tariffs on more than 180 countries and territories, leaving vendors scrambling to adjust.

The writing was on the wall in our jobs data months before the week's headlines: Amazon jobs are down 55% in China since their August peak, with a particularly sharp removal of openings on April 8th. This lead time from labor demand meltdown to official word of vendor issues offers investors valuable insight for evaluating company and supply chain responses to Trump's new economic order.

Turo's Hiring Cliff Preceded 15% Staff Cuts by Three Weeks

Turo Daily Job Openings Slashed to Zero on 3/29/25

Car-rental startup Turo is laying off approximately 150 employees (15% of its workforce) to strengthen its position for long-term growth amid economic uncertainty, following its withdrawal from IPO plans in February.

The company announced the layoffs on April 16th, but our data showed the warning signs much earlier: Turo's hiring website removed all active jobs on March 29th, an all-but-certain indicator of layoffs on the near horizon. The sheer cliff of active jobs evident in our tracking graphs represents one of the more blaring signals of company distress or restructuring you'll find in labor demand data.

On the Ups:

Figma Powers Up Sales and Engineering Hiring Ahead of IPO Filing

Computer Engineering hiring up 10x at Figma since top of 2024

Figma sales hiring spike ahead of IPO filing

Design platform Figma has confidentially filed for an IPO in the US, pursuing a public market debut despite current volatility affecting tech IPOs.

In the lead-up to filing, Figma significantly ramped up sales hiring to push revenue ahead of going public, following a pattern we frequently observe with IPO hopefuls. As the company grew rapidly in the last two years, their openings for computer & mathematical hires increased ten-fold, signaling robust product development alongside their revenue push.

European Luxury Brands Outdo American Counterparts in Labor Demand

European Luxury Brands hiring is up since start of year while American brands lag

Hermès has overtaken LVMH as France's most valuable company at €249 billion, vindicating its independence strategy after LVMH's attempted hostile takeover 15 years ago. Its exclusive approach and scarcity model have proven more resilient in the current luxury market downturn.

Even amid volatility for top shoppers, labor demand at major European luxury retailers is up over 20% since the top of the year, while American counterparts lag behind. While American anxieties simmer from Trump tariff woes, with luxury spenders most affected by market travails, Europeans may be feeling the optimism of unity and burgeoning independence from American economic hegemony.

Field Notes from the AI Labor Revolution:

The "Agentic" AI Wave Is Cresting in Job Descriptions

Job Descriptions including term “Agentic” have skyrocketed since 2022

We've always said the AI revolution would show up first in job descriptions; we've reached a new inflection point. Businesses are transitioning from using AI merely to accelerate existing processes to embracing "Agentic AI" - truly autonomous systems capable of independently reshaping operations.

The data speaks for itself: daily active job descriptions featuring the term "agentic" have spiked from virtually zero to 2,000+ in just over two years. This extraordinary growth reflects organizations preparing to address regulatory challenges, build company-wide AI literacy, focus on high-ROI use cases, and establish transparency to build necessary trust.

Searching company employment data for indications of in-demand skill hiring continues to be a powerful indicator of an organization’s positioning to compete in a rapidly shifting economy.

Job Postings as Real-Time Strategy Signals

Hiring activity offers a unique window into how companies allocate capital, prioritize operations, and respond to external pressure. For enterprise executives and investors, tracking these shifts weekly can surface signals before they appear in financials or the news cycle.