Due to uncertain economic conditions, geopolitical tensions, and rising inflation, October 2022 saw the number of active jobs (jobs available for application) continuing to fall, with the rate of job closures outpacing the rate of new job postings, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Job Analytics Database reveals that the active job index for all industries declined by 11.5% month-on-month in October 2022, whereas new job postings dipped by 11% and job closures remained flat.

Sherla Sriprada, Analyst at GlobalData comments: “Economic slowdown has meant that companies continue to face inflationary pressures. Job cuts and hiring freezes are two of the most prudent ways for businesses to be cost-efficient. Credit Suisse Group, CBRE Ltd, HP Inc, and Microsoft were some of the companies that announced layoffs during October.”

GlobalData’s research also reveals that October brought a downturn in hiring activity in the industries the company tracks. Major industries like banking & payments, aerospace, defense & security, technology, pharma, and retail were most impacted during the month.

Despite a recent downturn in hiring, a few companies are still creating new roles. Around 700 jobs were posted for newly created roles in October 2022, including Microsoft’s ‘Sr. Director – Sourcing & Supply Operations’ role which is responsible for driving digital transformation, Visa’s posting for an ‘Account Director, Global Client Management’ role which looks at partnering across multiple markets with the Asia Pacific clients, and UnitedHealth Group Inc’s posting for a ‘VP, Digital Consumer Experience Engineering’ role which would be responsible for implementing the end-to-end digital vision strategy.

Sriprada adds: “Analysing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics job postings globally, reveals a decrease of 13% in October 2022 compared to the previous month. Furthermore, the US STEM active jobs index is down by 18.6% in October 2022.”

The trending technical skills in October 2022 were application lifecycle management, office productivity applications, and application platforms and containers. Companies that have posted jobs for these skills include JPMorgan Chase & Co, Amazon Web Services Inc, US Bank Inc, and Northrop Grumman Corp.