On Wall Street, one of the few things people can agree on is that 'cash is king.'

Consumers may be feeling otherwise, and there has been a flood of attention paid to payments apps, leading some sector leaders to buck the global trend of job posting declines and crank up hiring as more people shelter-in-place and transact via the app.

Visa ($V) has slashed more than 1,000 job postings since the year began, as the payments industry behemoth is showing signs of restraint in hiring during the Coronavirus pandemic. It comes as many players in the space are ramping up job postings. 

But, to be clear, Visa isn't really 'competitors' to all these companies, because its technology serves as the 'rails' that guides the payment process. In other words, Visa is helping the Squares and big banks of the world run transactions, from chip-enabled debit cards to JPMorgan's popular Sapphire rewards program. 

Then again, like the tale of so many other companies now shedding job postings, or staff (Visa hasn't publicly announced substantive cuts), Visa has been on a solid growth trajectory, we can tell by our Linkedin Employee Headcount chart, above. The staff has grown 13% over the last 12 months. 

Analysts tracked by Zacks Investment Research are looking for EPS of $1.35, a slight increase, for Visa when it announces results Thursday, April 23. 

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

Further Reading: 

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