The number of job postings specifying new employees must be vaccinated against Covid-19 nearly doubled during the past month, according to research by the job board Indeed. The requirement is being seen across industries, from accounting to software development and restaurants.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, absolute numbers are low but the percentage increase is notable. About 1,200 postings per million require vaccination, up from about 600 in July and some 50 per million jobs in February.
The number of job postings requiring vaccination against Covid-19 nearly doubled during the past month. #HR #HRTech @Indeed Click To TweetIndeed economist AnnElizabeth Konkel told the Journal that before Covid vaccines were widely available, few positions outside of healthcare required a vaccination.
“it’s a trend that’s really taking off,” Konkel said. “I think a growing number of employers are trying to keep workers safe and do not want to shut down again this winter….They see vaccines as the way out of this pandemic.”
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The number of job postings requiring vaccination is rising even as the coronavirus’s Delta variant rapidly spreads. The University of Michigan said that U.S. consumer sentiment has dropped during August because of the variant. Meanwhile, the federal government, the State of California, McDonald’s Corp. and Walt Disney Co. are among the companies saying at least some of their workers will have to be vaccinated in order to gain entrance to their work site.
The number of postings per million requiring vaccination in education rose to 2,166 in July from 33 in February, Indeed said. Food service companies included vaccine requirements at the rate of 814 per million in July, up from 43 in February. The rate per million was 1,184 in accounting, up from 39. It was 438 in software development, up from four.
The job postings don’t necessarily indicate how employers are approaching vaccination within their current workforces, the Journal pointed out.
While participation in the labor force fell during the pandemic, Jonathan Meer, a labor economist at Texas A&M University, doesn’t believe vaccine requirements will have a significant impact on the number of adults willing to take jobs. “The labor market is tight enough that there will likely be employers who are willing to overlook vaccination status,” he said.
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