Job postings are down nearly everywhere but these 4 sectors
If the economic theme of 2025 was uncertainty, the theme of 2026 is shaping up to be one of stagnation.
According to the new Indeed 2026 Employment and Recruiting Trends report, the U.S. job market is deeply frozen. We currently live in a weak hiring environment: many employers are too nervous to increase their workforce, but not anxious enough to launch mass layoffs.
A comparison of the latest job posting data from October 2025 with that from a year earlier indicates that the cooling effect is not limited to one specific area: it is virtually everywhere. From child care job openings, down 13.8%, to IT infrastructure, down 13%, the vast majority of sectors have fewer job openings today than a year ago.
Sectors that were previously resilient, such as retail and hospitality, are showing signs of fatigue, Indeed found. The Trump administration’s budget cuts contributed to a massive 22.2% decline in scientific research and development positions. And the AI boom apparently plays a role in the 3.5% decrease in software development job openings. Even nursing is down 6%.
Amid this ocean of decline, a few surprising outliers bucked the trend. Here are the four industries that actually saw gains on Indeed:
