A growing number of U.S. employers are offering benefits to attract job seekers, a trend that could be particularly beneficial for workers in industries that don’t traditionally offer benefits.
Nearly 60% of posted job ads list at least one benefit, up more than 50% from 2020, according to a new analysis from career services firm Indeed.com. Indeed.com tracked the number of U.S. job ads posted on its platform from January 2020 to May 2024 that mentioned at least one benefit that the employer supports.
Our analysis found that more companies are listing benefits like paid leave and health insurance in their job ads since the pandemic began. This trend spans all industries and all companies at all pay levels, but it’s most common in low-paying, remote jobs with few benefits.
“The tight labor market post-pandemic has made hiring more competitive,” said Alison Shrivastala, an associate economist at Indeed Hiring Lab and the report’s author. “It’s likely that employers have increased the use of benefits in job postings to attract job seekers, particularly in areas where benefits are less common than expected.”
As of May, 62% of job postings in low-wage sectors highlighted at least one benefit, compared to 57% of job postings in mid-wage sectors and 58% of job postings in high-wage sectors.
Family benefits are still rare
Unlike health care and insurance, which are the most common types of benefits employers advertise in job postings—severance pay and paid time off—family benefits are still rare, appearing in just 7% of all postings, up from 2.5% in 2020, according to Indeed. Coveted benefit categories include paid parental leave, adoption assistance, family leave, and bereavement leave.
“These benefits are often unexpected,” Shrivastala said. “So let’s say you’re an employer in an industry where there are a lot of implicit benefits, advertising family-related benefits can still set you apart because they’re still pretty rare.”
Of course, the surge in job postings featuring benefits doesn’t necessarily reflect an increase in the number of companies offering benefits. It simply reflects an increase in employers choosing to advertise benefits. As Indeed notes, only time will tell whether more workers in low-wage sectors, for example, will be able to access retirement benefits.
Nonetheless, the recent changes are a step in the right direction, said Shrivastara.
“I think it’s great that benefits are increasing across the board and the gap between the safety net and things like that is narrowing. And if I were a job seeker in a sector where there are less job openings, I would look at the advertised benefits when considering which jobs to apply for, just as I would if I were an employer in that sector.”
