Mid-Year Job Market Snapshot: 2020

Industry Insights

With the second half of 2020 underway, it’s a great time to take a step back and look at how the job market has fared to date – especially given COVID-19’s profound impact on employment and the world at large. In addition to our annual U.S. Job Industry Recap and Outlook and Quarterly Reports detailing job industry trends from our most popular talent communities, 2020 warranted a mid-year lookback.

Below is a snapshot of employment trends from the past six months, based on data from iHire’s 56 industry-specific talent communities from January 1 through June 30, 2020.

New Jobs Posted by Month

A whopping 3.53 million new job postings were added to iHire’s platform in January 2020, but that number dramatically fell in March and April when businesses started shutting their doors and pausing hiring efforts due to COVID-19. However, job postings began to rise again in late May as organizations looked to reopen and resume hiring:

Month	Total Jobs Added (in Millions)
January	3.53
February	3.27
March	2.73
April	1.86
May	2.36
June	2.59

Active Jobs by Month

The total number of active job postings on iHire at the end of any given month followed a similar pattern to the above data – showing a major slowdown in March and April and suggesting signs of recovery in May and June:

Month	Total Active Jobs (in Millions)
January	2.97
February	2.98
March	2.12
April	1.94
May	2.54
June	2.79

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Active Job Seekers by Month

As the unemployment rate climbed in Q2 2020, iHire experienced an uptick in job seekers who indicated they were actively searching for a job. This is positive news for employers who are hiring again and need to fill positions with qualified talent quickly. Here’s how our active job seeker numbers stacked up, month by month:

Month	Total Active Job Seekers (in Millions)
January	4.43
February	4.42
March	4.54
April	5.24
May	4.84
June	5.18

Top Hiring Industries

The following iHire talent communities saw the most job postings in the first half of the year. Here’s how they ranked:

iHire Talent Community	Total Job Postings (in Millions)
iHireNursing	1.81
iHireTechnology	1.37
iHireTransportation	1.22
iHireSalesPeople	0.94
iHireRetail	0.74
iHireLogistics	0.52
iHireConstruction	0.49
iHireEngineering	0.49
iHireHospitality	0.46
iHireCustomerService	0.40

Popular Career Titles

Digging into the job postings themselves, we found the following career titles were the most popular across iHire’s talent communities in the first half of 2020:

Career Titles	Job Postings (in Millions)
Registered Nurse (RN)	0.96
CDL Truck Driver	0.68
Sales Representative	0.55
Software Developer	0.47
Customer Service Representative	0.33
Clerk/Cashier	0.32
Engineer	0.27
Nurse Assistant (CNA)	0.22
Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)	0.17
Long Haul Truck Driver	0.17
Account Executive/Account Manager	0.16
Admin Assistant	0.16
Wait Staff	0.16
Security Guard	0.15
Home Health Aide	0.14
Accountant	0.10

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Most Desired Candidate Skills and Credentials

Lastly, the following were the candidate skills and credentials most desired by employers, as indicated in their job postings:

Skill/Credential	Number of Postings (in Millions)
Management	1.68
Training & Development	1.36
Scheduling	1.22
Communication	1.17
Customer Service	1.00
Leadership	0.83
Organization	0.78
Sales	0.78
Staff Supervision	0.73
Healthcare Management	0.52
Software	0.51
Retail	0.50
Driving	0.50
Policy Development	0.48