Job postings advertising a 4-day workweek have risen steadily in recent years, but remain low overall.
By Allison Shrivastava & Nick Bunker
October 30, 2023 - Indeed Hiring Lab
Key Points:
Our monthly Labor Market Update looks at an important labor market trend through the lens of Indeed data. A more comprehensive view of the US labor market can be found in our US Labor Market Overview chartbook. Data from our Job Postings Index ・which stands 27.8% above its pre-pandemic baseline as of October 20 ・and the Indeed Wage Tracker, are regularly updated and can be downloaded on our data portal, and GitHub.
While it remains very small overall, the share of job postings on Indeed advertising a 4-day workweek has roughly tripled in four years, rising from just 0.1% of postings in September 2019 to almost 0.3% in September 2023. It may be tempting to attribute the rise to changing attitudes in more remote-friendly industries like tech. But it’s actually heavily in-person sectors ・including manufacturing, where many striking workers are currently demanding shorter work weeks ・that make up the bulk of advertisements.
A line graph titled “Jobs advertising a 4-day workweek increasing, but remains less than 0.3% of total posts” with a vertical axis of 0.15% to 0.25%, Indeed tracked the share of jobs advertising a 4-day workweek, aggregated monthly from September 2019 to September 2023. The number of jobs advertising a 4-day workweek is increasing but remains low.
The overall share of postings advertising a 4-day workweek may be low, but it does continue to climb. Mentions of 4-day work weeks are growing fastest, by far, in the veterinary services sector, with the share of postings noting the perk growing by 1.39 percentage points from September 2019 to September 2023. Dentistry was the next-fastest-growing sector over that time, up 0.9 percentage points, followed by growth of 0.37 percentage points for industrial engineering.
Table titled “Veterinary is the fastest growing sector” shows the sectors with the largest change in percentage points in 4-day workweek advertisements from September 2019 to September 2023. Veterinary services had the largest increase followed by dental.
Dentistry roles have the largest current share of 4-day workweek postings at 2.7% in September, followed closely by veterinary jobs at just over 2%. Physicians & surgeons (1%), production & manufacturing (0.7%), and driving roles (0.7%) round out the list of the five sectors with the highest share of jobs mentioning a 4-day work week. Tech sectors including software and IT both come in at just 0.2% and did not crack the top five.
A bar graph titled “Top 5 sectors advertising a 4-day workweek” With a horizontal axis ranging from 0% to 2%, Indeed compares the share of postings by sector that advertise a 4-day workweek, limited to the top 5 sectors based on the share of advertisements. Medical sectors lead the way followed by production & manufacturing and driving.
Jobs in manufacturing and production advertising a 4-day workweek have increased by 40% since September 2019, but only an increase in level terms from just 0.5% of manufacturing jobs to a still-paltry 0.7%. While it’s difficult to tell if four-day work week opportunities for manufacturing workers will continue to grow, it is currently a topic of lively discussion. Leaders of the UAW, which represents roughly 400,000 unionized North American manufacturing workers, were demanding a 4-day workweek as part of their contract negotiations and strike against the nation’s Big Three automakers.
A 4-day workweek may be gaining popularity, but it has a long way to go before becoming the norm. While the share has increased over the years, the total number of jobs advertising a 4-day workweek account for less than 0.3% of total postings, concentrated in just a few sectors. But even among those top advertising sectors, 4-day workweek positions account for at most 2.7% of posts.
A 4-day workweek is more commonly advertised in sectors that are unlikely to benefit from other competitive perks, including remote/hybrid offices ・dentists, doctors, vets, factory workers, and drivers simply can’t do their work remotely. Time will tell if this remains a rare benefit offered for some in-person roles in order to stay competitive, or becomes an expectation for job seekers and/or a more common demand in union negotiations. But for office workers in particular, a standardized 4-day workweek is a long way off.
Methodology
We define 4-day workweek postings as those that include one or more variations of keywords related to “4-day workweek.” Definitions change slightly from year to year, so previous 4-day workweek analyses are not directly comparable.
