Russell 3000 Job Demand Continues Decline In April

Demand for US jobs among Russell 3000 companies remained highly depressed during April, although certain industries such as Retail and Transportation pulled back on hiring faster. This is according to labor market intelligence firm Greenwich.HR, which tracks hiring and pay behaviors. Hiring volume continues to change significantly on a weekly basis as companies struggle to deal with the evolving implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Following the across-the-board declines in hiring demand during the second half of March, companies and industries began adopting different approaches to hiring,” Says Kevin Moldestad, COO of Greenwich.HR. “In April, in the aggregate the hiring declines have slowed, but there’s a much wider variance across industries. We’re expecting further areas of weaknesses in the coming weeks.”

Retail, Transportation, and Aerospace had the sharpest declines, reducing job listings by 94%, 82%, and 77% respectively.  

“We believe we are still many weeks away from having a stable picture.,” Says Cary Sparrow, CEO of Greenwich.HR. “There are still many open questions that are moving companies in potentially opposite directions. Like how government stimulus may or may not mitigate declines, how pullbacks in spending in areas such as IT will have broader ripple effects across the economy in coming weeks, and how local efforts to relax social distancing may result in additional spending and confidence. We see a lot of room for further downside, but we also believe certain upside opportunities could become apparent.”

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This analysis is based on job listing data from all Russell 3000 companies. It includes data from over 760 thousand US job listings which were initially posted during April 2020 and March 2020. Greenwich.HR tracks the hiring and pay behaviors of over 2.9 million organizations.

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