Frequently asked
These are the questions people actually ask. None of the answers is new — each one is already somewhere on this site. What follows is the short version, with a link to the long one.
Is my job on the list?
Edition 1 covers 23 kinds of work, chosen to put work with high AI exposure and work with low exposure side by side. It is not exhaustive, and it does not try to be. If we do not cover yours, we say so rather than forcing you into a bucket that looks close enough — and the next edition is built from what people ask for. See every kind of work we measure, or tell us what is missing.
Does this apply to my country?
Every kind of work is compared against the whole basket of work in the same country, never against another country. That is the one rule we hold to most strictly, because advertisement density and how much hiring happens online at all differ enormously between countries.
Coverage is uneven, and we state it rather than hide it: depending on the work, we can see it in anywhere from 7 to 24 markets, and each page says how many it could see. Why we never compare markets.
Job advertisements are not jobs.
Correct, and we do not claim otherwise. One advertisement can be one vacancy or fifty, and some kinds of work advertise more than others. This measures advertised hiring activity, not headcount, not hires, and not vacancies across the whole economy. What the figures are.
Will this tell me whether I am going to lose my job?
No. It measures the direction and pace of advertised demand for a kind of work, across the markets where we can see it. It says nothing about one person, one employer or one desk.
And one finding is worth knowing before you read anything else: in edition 1, 20 of the 23 kinds of work we track grew in absolute terms. Advertisements grew almost everywhere, and what changed for those 20 was the share — some grew faster than the market around them, and some grew more slowly. 3 fell outright — fewer advertisements than two years earlier, not a smaller share of a growing market.
One fell outright: software developers. Fewer advertisements in the latest twelve months than two years earlier, worldwide — not a smaller share of a growing market, but fewer. Its own page says so, and says in how many countries.
Why should I believe any of it?
Because the rules are fixed before the counting, and they are restrictive. There is a floor set in advance: below 500 advertisements in the base year, nothing is published. We never compare one country against another. And we removed a large source from the count because it entered the index halfway through the period — throwing data away is what protects the comparison.
The most serious criticism of an index like this is a fair one: that is not a measure of the market, it is a measure of your list. The answer is not to argue. It is to show the list.
You say 24 markets, but my page shows 7.
A market appears for a kind of work only once we counted at least 500 advertisements for it in the base window. It is a minimum-volume rule we chose and fixed before counting, not a figure derived from an estimate of sampling error: below it, a single cell is too small for us to be willing to report on its own. Cells below the floor are not deleted — they stay in the market basket every kind of work is measured against, so that all of them are compared against the same geography.
This is why coverage runs from 7 markets for the narrowest kind of work to 24 for the widest.
Where does the data come from?
Aggregated online job-advertisement data from a third-party provider, used under the applicable provider terms. We publish derived counts and comparisons — never the underlying advertisements. Sources and attribution.
How often is it updated?
Two different rhythms, and the difference is the point.
The public index is annual. Edition 1 covers the two years to June 2026, and the next edition replaces it once a year.
The annual pass is quarterly. If you hold it, the kinds of work you follow are refreshed every three months, so you see movement four times a year instead of once — and you keep the history, so you can see whether a change held or was noise.
Figures may be revised between editions as methodology or coverage improves; when that happens we say so. And we say when a movement is too small to read: a gap smaller than 0.05 either way in the ratio is inside the materiality band we set in advance, below which we do not call it a movement, and we mark it as such rather than dress it up.
Can I quote it?
Yes. The published figures may be quoted, with attribution: cite SHIFT and link to the page you took the figure from. The paid reports, the private pages and the site itself may not be redistributed or republished in full. We are available to demonstrate how a particular figure was produced. If you are on a deadline and need a number confirmed, write to us.
What do I get for €19?
One kind of work, in every market we can see it in — not one country. The PDF of the current edition, yours to keep, and a private page on the site. It names which countries this work is growing in and which it is shrinking in, how much, how it compares with the other 22 kinds of work we track, and every search term behind the numbers.
Countries do not cost extra, and that is deliberate: a new kind of work means new collection, a further country of the same work does not. Kinds of work are paid for; countries are not.
What is the annual pass for?
€49. It adds what a one-off document cannot give you: the quarterly refresh, the history behind it, and three kinds of work instead of one — useful if you are weighing a move from one to another. Further kinds of work are €12 a year each inside the pass, up to eight.
If you start with the document and want the pass, you have 30 days to move up and pay only the difference.
Does the annual pass renew automatically?
Yes, once a year — and we tell you before it happens. We email you 14 days before each renewal, on top of what Paddle sends, and that email says what actually changed in the year you paid for.
You can cancel at any time through Paddle. Cancelling stops the next renewal; your access runs to the end of the year you have already paid for, and is not refunded pro rata. If you stop, you keep everything you already received — the kinds of work you follow stay yours at the last edition you had. You simply stop receiving new refreshes. The full route is here.
How do I pay, and who charges me?
Purchases are made from Paddle, the authorised reseller and Merchant of Record. Paddle shows the payment methods available where you are, and shows the final price, the currency and any taxes before you pay.
One thing worth knowing in advance: Paddle appears on your bank or card statement, not SHIFT. That is normal for this kind of sale, and it is the reason we say it here rather than let you wonder later what the charge was.
Do I get an invoice?
Paddle issues the receipt or commercial document for the transaction, because Paddle is the seller of record. We do not issue a second one — one purchase, one document. If you are buying for a company, Paddle’s checkout is where the company details go, and that is the only place they can go.
When do I get access, and how?
As soon as Paddle confirms the payment. You get an email with a link that signs you in, and inside is the private page for the kind of work you bought, plus the PDF to download. The PDF is yours to keep, and the private page is kept available for at least 24 months — you are not downloading something once and hoping you kept it.
Do I need to create a password?
No, and you cannot. There are no passwords here. You give an email address, we send a link, and the link signs you in. The link can be used once and expires after a short time; if it expires, ask for another one — there is nothing to remember and nothing of yours to leak.
I paid and nothing arrived.
Check the spam folder first, because a sign-in link is exactly the shape of message filters dislike. Then write to academy@josecovas.com and we will fix delivery — that part is ours.
Anything about the payment itself — the charge, the receipt, cancelling the transaction, a refund — goes to Paddle buyer support, using the links on your Paddle receipt. Which goes where, in full.
Can I get a refund?
Yes. Purchases are made from Paddle, the authorised reseller and Merchant of Record, and refunds are handled by Paddle. The deadlines and the route are in Support, Delivery & Refunds.
Who is behind this?
SHIFT is published by José Covas Education Academy, Lda, in Lisbon. About SHIFT.