Snap Chart
A forward-looking signal of labor demand, job posting activity highlights where talent is and is not in demand well before those trends are reflected in official statistics. The second quarter of 2026 brought a further decline in job postings across the major markets and industries tracked by Bain’s AuraSM platform.
This is not a uniform contraction so much as a two-speed labor market: Broad weakness in many sectors and functions coexists with continued demand in AI-adjacent roles. Six strategic implications stand out for how organizations access, develop, and deploy talent.
Labor demand remains weak across major markets. France (–40%), Brazil (–39%), and the Netherlands (–33%) suffered the largest year-over-year declines among the top 10 markets tracked, followed by Germany (–27%) and the United States (–23%). India (–5%), Canada (–4%), Japan (–7%), China (–10%), and the UK (–9%) fared better.
Most major industries contracted, but staffing and recruiting was relatively resilient. Among the largest industries, staffing and recruiting was the most resilient, with postings down 5% year over year. Construction (–8%) and information technology and services (–10%) also held up better than the overall market. By contrast, hospitals and healthcare (–28%), restaurants (–27%), financial services (–25%), retail (–24%), human resources (–24%), and computer software (–23%) saw steeper declines.
The broad pattern remains one of normalization from elevated hiring levels, but demand is not uniformly weak. Smaller industry categories recorded strong year-over-year growth, including venture capital and private equity (+47%), capital markets (+26%), computer and network security (+19%), and defense and space (+13%). These pockets of growth point to continued hiring in targeted capabilities even as more general demand contracts.
Core functions remain under pressure. Most major functions recorded double-digit year-over-year declines, pointing to continued headcount reduction and a shift toward more selective hiring for specialized or business-critical capabilities. Research, design, and development saw the largest drop, down 37%, followed by sales (–32%), marketing (–32%), strategy and analytics (–27%), IT (–25%), and finance (–24%). Operations (–20%) and HR (–17%) also declined, while engineering (–7%) and other general and administrative functions (–13%) were relatively more resilient.
AI-related postings continued to rise. AI-related postings continued to grow, totaling roughly 351,000 in the second quarter, up 60% from the second quarter of 2025 and 12% from the first quarter of 2026. AI-related postings also represented a larger share of total postings than a year earlier, although they remained a small portion of overall demand.
Entry-level jobs dropped year over year. Postings for junior jobs, representing 95% of all job postings for the quarter, fell 11% year over year, an acceleration from the first quarter’s 6% year-over-year decline.
Broad-based hiring remains elusive. For workforce leaders, the implication is clear: Organizations that are gaining ground are making deliberate, targeted investments in the capabilities that matter. The question is no longer simply “When will hiring recover?” but “Where is demand accelerating, and are we positioned to compete for that talent?” In the current environment, that means tracking demand at a more granular level—across markets, functions, industries, and AI-adjacent capabilities—and aligning recruiting, reskilling, and workforce planning accordingly.
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