Wayfair ($W) had a good first quarter of 2020, growing revenue 20% year over year to $2.3 billion and increasing "active customers" by 29% during the same period. The company has been scrambling to keep up with demand, building out its supply chain and logistics operations as people increasingly do their home-improvement shopping online. In fact, as we reported last month, more people are mentioning Wayfair on Facebook than ever.

It's not too surprising, then, that during a time of hiring and workforce cutbacks, Wayfair has been on a quiet but certain hiring spree. And reflective of its need to shore up its operational side of the business, most of the hiring has been for its warehouse and operations business units. 

Here's what we're seeing.

Moving into late March, the number of job listings at Warfair's careers site was steadily decreasing. But in late April — and just before its earnings report on May 5 — the company began listing new jobs. From April 23 to May 17, the number of openings on Wayfair's careers page increased from 198 to 265, a 33.8% jump.

Most of the increase appears to be consistent with the company's promise to investors to shore up its logistics and operations business units. The largest single category of new job listings since April has been for the company's "NA Supply Chain". The "Sales & Service" and "Infrastructure and Planning" groups were a distant second and third.

The most common job listings were for Warehouse Associates, some seasonal. Other listings consistent with the company's focus on operations include "Associate Director, Transportation Execution" and "Operations Manager" openings.

Title

Ticker Symbol (Count)

Warehouse Associate

230

Warehouse Associate - Seasonal

194

Associate Director, Transportation Execution

180

Seasonal Warehouse Associate

168

Operations Manager

92

Equipment Operator

76

Safety Supervisor

75

Supply Chain Regional Training Supervisor

65

Customer Service Representative

54

Operations Supervisor

51

The above table lists the number of times those job titles appeared on Wayfair's careers page, and are not representative of the final number of openings the company may have.

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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