Why might it be more difficult to find a job online?

(CNN) — The economic outlook in the United States in recent years has been characterized by a very strong labor market.

But new data on online job postings points to a potential slowdown: According to data shared with CNN as of Jan. 5 by Indeed director Nick Bunker, total job postings on the online job site Indeed are down 15% compared to the beginning of 2023. Fell more than. Economic Research for North America.

New job postings, or those that have been on Indeed for 7 days or less, declined 13.5% year over year, Bunker said.

LinkedIn, which collects hiring data for its more than 206 million users in the US, also reported a decline in hiring between the end of 2022 and the end of 2023.

The glut of job opportunities in recent years has made it easier for Americans to jump from one job to another, gaining better pay and perks like remote work in the process. However, with the start of the new year, a new era of job searching may begin, and the advantage employees have in seeking remote work may fade.

In which sector the recruitment is taking place?

According to Indeed, traditional white-collar office jobs have decreased their online recruiting efforts the most. “Job offers in software development fell 44.6% from a year ago, while job offers in banking and finance fell 31.3%,” Bunker explains.

But Indeed isn’t the only online job marketplace whose data points to a slowdown in the labor market this year.

In a report released Wednesday, LinkedIn chief economist Karin Kimbrough said that, according to the site’s data, hiring on LinkedIn was down about 10% year-over-year in December.

Kimbrough said he expects competition for jobs to become “intense” in 2024 as the pace of hiring stabilizes.

“Whether you look at official data from the US, Canada, Australia, the UK or the EU, the story is the same: job vacancies and vacancies are down across the board and show no signs of slowing down.” Said.

fewer remote job offers

As competition increases and job opportunities become fewer, companies are less willing to offer a benefit that has become a defining feature of the post-pandemic work world: remote work.

According to Indeed data, most of the relative strength in hiring in 2023 came from individual jobs, such as food preparation and service and retail.

At its peak in April 2022, remote job openings accounted for 20% of all openings posted on LinkedIn, according to a report from the company on the state of remote work. Since then, the proportion of job postings that allow employees to work from home has declined sharply.

The percentage of remote job offers in the US on LinkedIn fell by more than 9% between January 2022 and December 2023, even though interest in these jobs remains high. According to the company, 46% of all applications submitted through LinkedIn in December were for remote jobs.

According to the report, online listings advertising remote roles received five times more applications than jobs without a remote work option.

weak employment data

Private sector data mirrors federal government data. According to the latest Job Offers and Labor Turnover survey, job offers in the US in November fell to the lowest level since March 2021, and although the national unemployment rate remained at or below 4%, the labor market is facing a turning point. May have to face. ,

In a January note to clients, Wells Fargo economists highlighted signs pointing to a weak jobs outlook, such as slowing wage growth and rising unemployment.

“Underneath the key figures, which remain strong, we see some cracks that make us cautious about the extent to which the strength may continue into 2024.” Wells Fargo economists wrote. “We expect the labor market to soften further this year.”

According to the latest data, the labor market remains historically strong: Last month, the US economy added 216,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate remained stable at 3.7%.

However, some high-profile companies have announced layoffs early in the new year. This month, tech giants Google and Amazon said they planned to lay off hundreds of employees. Last week, Citigroup also announced it would lay off 20,000 employees over the next two years.