Research & Data
Job postings on Indeed are inching higher, but the flow of brand-new listings has gone nowhere, according to the October U.S. labor market snapshot that Indeed Hiring Lab published Thursday, Oct. 22. The company’s research arm concluded that “it would be premature to say the labor market is strengthening,” describing a market that “remains stubbornly set in a low-hire, low-fire stance.”
Indeed’s seasonally adjusted Job Postings Index stood at 103.8 on Oct. 16, up 0.3% from a month earlier and 2.8% from a year earlier. A year ago, the same annual comparison showed a decline of 8.1%. Because the index is set to 100 on Feb. 1, 2020, a reading of 103.8 means postings on Indeed’s platform were almost 4% above their pre-pandemic level. It is an index of listings on one job site, not a count of open positions or of people hired.
Stock versus flow
The more telling number is the index of new postings, which tracks listings that appeared on the site for the first time. Hiring Lab said new postings “have continued to drift sideways, settling at 99.2,” slightly below the February 2020 baseline.
The distinction matters for job seekers. The overall index measures the stock of everything advertised, including listings that stay up for weeks. A rising stock alongside flat new postings can mean jobs are taking longer to fill or listings are lingering, rather than employers opening many more positions. Hiring Lab’s reading is that advertised demand has firmed a bit without turning into a broad hiring pickup.
The improvement is spreading, however. In the snapshot, 68% of occupational sectors had higher postings than a year earlier, up from 49% at the start of September.
Where demand is concentrated
Engineering stood out, with its sector index near 145. Healthcare was around 131 and production and manufacturing around 124, while human resources sat near 99 and software development was well below its pre-pandemic baseline, in the high 70s.
Hiring Lab tied weak tech hiring to the geography of the slowdown: local indexes in Seattle (67), San Francisco (72) and Santa Rosa (73) were among the lowest in the country.
The snapshot also pointed to data centers as a pocket of growth. Data center-related job postings grew another 20% in three months and are now 147% above their June 2024 level, while tech postings outside data centers hovered near their baseline. AI-related postings accounted for 7.3% of all postings, above the previous peak of 3.3% reached in 2022. That figure measures AI language in job ads, not the share of jobs that use AI.
Pay is losing ground
Posted wages on Indeed grew 2.4% year over year in September 2026, which Hiring Lab said was a slight cooling after stronger summer readings. That compares with consumer price inflation of 3.7% cited in the snapshot, implying advertised pay is not keeping pace with prices. Hiring Lab also noted that inflation-adjusted average weekly earnings fell 0.5% from August to September and were 0.1% lower than a year earlier. Some specialties did better: advertised pay in electrical engineering was up 5.6% and in IT systems and solutions 4.7%.
The official backdrop
The snapshot set its platform data against government figures. It cited a 4.2% unemployment rate, compared with a 3.7% average in 2019, and roughly 1.0 job opening per unemployed person, below about 1.2 in 2019. It noted a September payroll gain of 29,000 jobs, an August hires rate of 3.3% and a quits rate of 1.9%. Hiring Lab characterized the latest unemployment uptick as “mostly a matter of rounding,” driven largely by people re-entering the labor force.
Looking ahead, the Federal Reserve’s policy committee meets Oct. 28. Hiring Lab said markets expect no change in rates, with about a 15% probability of a quarter-point increase priced in.
Caveats
Indeed’s indexes reflect postings on its own site and can be affected by changes in how employers use the platform. Postings signal employer intent, not completed hires. For workers, the snapshot suggests that openings are available in engineering, healthcare and data center-related work, but that the overall pace of fresh opportunities remains roughly where it was before the pandemic.
Sources
- Indeed Hiring Lab, “US Labor Market Snapshot, October 2026,” October 22, 2026. https://hiringlab.indeed.com/2026/10/22/us-labor-market-snapshot-october-2026/
Featured photo: The Indeed sign atop Indeed Tower at 201 W. 5th St. in downtown Austin, Texas, at sunset on Sept. 21, 2019, with the Scarbrough Building in the foreground. Photo: Will Buckner, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Cropped from the original.
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