Inside the September Labor Market: Remote Stabilizes, Digital Sectors Advance, APAC Outperforms

What Aura’s Jobs Report Reveals About Remote Work and Global Hiring

Public signals and private signals are finally converging: the labor market is cooling broadly, but not evenly.

CNN summed it up starkly this week: for the first time since 2021, job openings have fallen below the number of unemployed, a “turning point” in their words. At the same time, TheStreet called this week’s August jobs release “a really big deal,” given the recent data revisions and the political firestorm around them.

Aura’s dataset confirms the cooling but adds nuance: remote stabilizes, digital categories absorb shocks, and APAC pulls ahead as the U.S. and Europe retrench. Aura’s real-time signals help guide hiring, investment, and strategy.

Remote Work Trends: Stability Amid a Cooling Labor Market

CNN noted that labor market churn, the healthy turnover that fuels wage growth and innovation, has “all but disappeared.” Aura’s view of remote hiring lines up with that diagnosis: total postings dipped, but the remote share of jobs climbed to ~7.5%. Employers are becoming more cautious, but they’re also using remote work selectively to reach talent they can’t move in-house.

Digital-first categories (Online Media +63%, HR +15%) are leaning into remote; place-bound ones (Sports –35%, Automotive –25%) are pulling back. That’s churn of a different kind: not a drop in overall volume, but a reallocation across sectors.

Digital Sectors Outperform as Consumer-Facing Industries Retreat

Even as overall postings slowed, Software (+5%) and Internet (+5%) showed growth in both remote and total postings. Contrast that with Healthcare, which declined overall but still posted gains in remote-heavy subfields like medical practice.

It echoes CNN’s observation that the market has become increasingly reliant on a handful of industries — health care and hospitality in particular — but our data shows those engines are now sputtering. Instead, Internet (+14%) and HR (+15%) are stepping into the gap while consumer-reliant industries such as Retail (–16%) and Hospitality (–18%) scale back.

Global Hiring Shift: Asia Pacific and Latin America Advance

The Street warned that this week’s reports will be pivotal for gauging whether slowdowns are cyclical or structural. Aura’s global signals tilt toward the latter: Asia Pacific (+5%) and Latin America (+2%) gained in August, while North America (–12%) and Europe (–13%) declined.

• Risers: Japan (+22%), India (+8%), Brazil (+3%)

• Decliners: U.S. (–12%), U.K. (–10%), France (–25%)

That could indicate more than noise. Japan and India’s gains are consistent with regional strength, while the U.S. and Europe’s pullback reflects broader macro pressure among heavily interconnected economies.

Within the U.S., declines were well-dispersed and spread across multiple regions, from Oklahoma to South Carolina, reinforcing that this isn’t a localized blip but a national cooling cycle.

Key Signals from August’s Labor Market Data

• CNN’s Take: A "Turning Point": For the first time since 2021, job openings are now fewer than the unemployed. Aura’s data confirms this “turning point,” but also shows it’s not a total collapse;  employers are reallocating jobs across sectors and leaning more on remote roles, not simply pulling back everywhere.

• TheStreet’s Take:  A "Big Deal": The upcoming jobs report carries extra weight after months of revisions and political scrutiny. Aura’s near-real-time dataset of posted jobs gives leaders a faster and more forward-looking read than official reports, which will continue to lag and be revised. That means consultants, investors, and operators can act on signals earlier than they could with public data alone.

Strategic Takeaways for Consultants, Investors, and Operators

• Consultants: Benchmark how exposed clients are to cooling consumer sectors versus stabilizing digital ones. Identify where churn is still occurring and adjust strategies to sectors that are showing movement.

• Investors: Treat APAC’s hiring growth as an early indicator. Use external data to validate and adjust assumptions about global demand trends.

• Operators and TA leaders: Focus efforts on remote roles in sectors where remote work is increasing, and shift hiring plans and budgets in retail, hospitality, and healthcare to reflect slower posting rates and lowered demand.

Where Hiring Momentum Still Remains

Headlines call the labor market “slumping” and “at a turning point.” Aura’s lens shows less churn, more reallocation: remote stabilizes, digital sectors advance, and APAC outperforms.

Stay ahead of shifting labor markets. Book a demo of Aura’s real-time platform to see where momentum still remains.