Back in May we published this post on how COVID was impacting hiring across the portfolio. On its worst day, our job board had only 750 jobs available, down over 50% from earlier in the year. With open jobs in the portfolio now climbing above 1,000 for the first time since April, we thought we’d give a quick update on where things stand.
The Good
- New job creation over the past 30 days is back to 93% of the monthly rolling average pre-COVID with Engineering and Go-To-Market roles leading the way.
- July produced our first back-to-back weeks of 100 new jobs since before the initial lockdowns
- 49% of our portfolio had a net increase in available jobs over the last 30 days vs 90% having a net decrease in May.
- The dominance of our three biggest hirers has dropped from 48% of total available jobs to 37%, indicating a better distribution of opportunities. We also saw solid growth from our Series B & C stage companies where the biggest drop offs occurred in April.
The Bad
- Overall jobs are still down 33% from their February highs.
- Certain areas, like Finance, Administrative functions, IT, and even Product are down more than 60%.
- New listings in San Francisco, our largest hiring market, are down 70%. New York has rebounded faster but is also down 50%
- Entry level positions have all but disappeared.
The Contributing Factors
- Strong performance in certain areas, in particular – Education and Healthcare
- New funding rounds at growth stage businesses like Upgrade, Stack Overflow, Skillshare, Stash, and Shippo
- A higher level of conviction from some teams to forge forward through the uncertainty and resume hiring.
- Companies committing to remote first. Remote jobs tripled their market share from 3.5% to 10.5% of total available jobs.
While we are still far from having the employment opportunities we had in February, these trends are positive for job seekers, employers, and the overall economy. It is my expectation that available jobs in the portfolio will return to ~75% of pre-COVID levels by the beginning of Q4. As always, you can see what opportunities are available by visiting jobs.usv.com.