Jobs Recap: November 2020

A seasonal downhill slide

In true 2020 fashion, just a few short months have brought dramatic changes in the labor market. Job listings have shifted from a gradual slowdown to a steady downhill slide. While the -4% decline in job listings we saw in November is the first drop in total job listings since recovery began in May, it is also in line with seasonality we typically see in November and December, after holiday hiring has ended and prior to new budgets in January.

Job listings were down in 88% of states in November, a significant change since October found listings down in 33% of states.

States with the biggest increases in job listings in November were Montana and Illinois (both up 11%), and Idaho (up 4%). Iowa, Maine, and West Virginia saw the biggest job listing declines, with all three states down more than 10%.

We also saw substantial declines at the occupation and sector levels. Job listings declined in 87% of occupations and 100% of sectors in November, compared to October’s more modest declines of 28% and 24% respectively.

The only occupations seeing growth in November were Life, Physical, and Social Science occupations (up 5%) and Transportation and Material Moving occupations (up 2%). On the bottom—the Utilities and Construction sectors saw the largest job listing declines, both at -11%.

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