Weekly Hiring Trends: October 5–October 11, 2026 *

DETAILED ANALYSIS

What the labor-market release said

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that September nonfarm payroll employment increased by 29,000 and the unemployment rate was 4.2%. BLS described employment in all major industries as little changed; the July and August payroll estimates were revised down by a combined 60,000.

Read the BLS Employment Situation — September 2026 (October 2, 2026) →

How Ghosted’s observations compare

Across 66 comparable companies observed from 2026-09-07 through 2026-09-30, 37 had more visible openings and 29 had fewer; the combined observed change was a net growth of +964 new openings. Our observed data recorded 99,184 newly observed postings and 100,932 postings leaving the observed listings. Taken together, these observations support a little-changed labor-market outlook rather than an acceleration.

Companies with the largest increases

• Lockheed Martin+9056,478 openings at period end
• Oracle+4802,714 openings at period end
• UnitedHealth Group+4245,587 openings at period end
• Meta+2811,293 openings at period end
• Capital One+2781,904 openings at period end
• CVS Health+19219,324 openings at period end
• Intel+176790 openings at period end
• Thermo Fisher Scientific+1693,051 openings at period end

Companies with the largest decreases

• Adobe-271281 openings at period end
• PepsiCo-2412,530 openings at period end
• Citigroup-1373,019 openings at period end
• Micron Technology-1312,949 openings at period end
• Gilead Sciences-101415 openings at period end
• Morgan Stanley-1001,260 openings at period end
• Abbott Laboratories-992,539 openings at period end
• ADP-98297 openings at period end

Leading newly observed roles

• Other3,836
• Sales2,056
• Engineering1,998
• Pharmacy1,736
• Retail1,675

Leading newly observed locations

• 2 Locations621
• 3 Locations256
• Seattle, Washington, USA132
• 4 Locations128
• McLean, VA114