The Hiring Channel Nobody Counts
American small businesses report they cannot fill their openings. Over the same period, 220 roles opened by 174 American companies were filled through a channel no employment statistic measures, in a median of twelve days, and mostly at half-time hours.
Key findings
- Official surveys show American small businesses stuck on hiring. NFIB's July 2026 survey found 36% of small business owners with job openings they could not fill, the highest reading since June 2025 against a historical average of 24%. Among owners hiring or trying to hire, 85% reported few or no qualified applicants.
- The same size of business is filling roles in twelve days through a channel no employment statistic measures. Median time to fill across 220 US roles is 12 days, and 62% are filled within two weeks.
- These are mostly not full-time jobs. 73% are part-time and the median request is 80 hours a month. Half of all US roles are opened at exactly 80 hours.
- Two fifths of the work is administrative. Administrative and operations support accounts for 40.8% of US demand, followed by sales at 12.7% and marketing at 9.9%.
- We make no causal claim. We hold no data on whether these companies tried to hire locally first. Two things are happening at the same time in the same segment of the economy, and that is what this report shows.
What the Official Numbers Say
The National Federation of Independent Business runs a monthly survey of American small business hiring. Its recent readings describe a market that is stuck.
| NFIB finding, July 2026 | Reading |
|---|---|
| Owners reporting job openings they could not fill | 36% |
| Long-run historical average for that reading | 24% |
| Owners hiring or trying to hire who saw few or no qualified applicants | 85% |
The 36% reading is the highest since June 2025 and sits well above the survey's long-run average.
These are external figures published by NFIB. They are not our data and we present them as reported. NFIB publishes monthly, so these readings are superseded on a regular cycle and should be checked against the current release before being quoted as current.
What Our Data Shows Over the Same Period
220 roles opened by 174 American companies between February and August 2026.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Median days to fill | 12 |
| Filled within two weeks | 62% |
| Filled within a month | 87% |
| Fastest quartile | 6 days or fewer |
| Engagement type | Share of US roles |
|---|---|
| Part-time | 73% |
| Full-time | 25% |
| Project-based | 2% |
| Monthly hours requested | Share of US roles |
|---|---|
| Exactly 80 hours (half-time) | 52% |
| 160 hours or more (full-time equivalent) | 25% |
| Median request | 80 hours |
Half of American demand comes from the eastern time zone, 22% from the Pacific, 14% Central and 10% Mountain.
What the Work Is
| Work category | Share of US demand | Roles including it |
|---|---|---|
| Administrative and operations support | 40.8% | 67.7% |
| Sales and business development | 12.7% | 22.7% |
| Marketing and advertising | 9.9% | 25.5% |
| Tech and development | 6.4% | 16.4% |
| Social media management | 5.8% | 15.5% |
| Real estate | 4.1% | 9.1% |
| Finance and accounting | 4.1% | 6.4% |
| Design and creative | 4.0% | 7.7% |
| E-commerce management | 3.8% | 9.1% |
| Analytics and software engineering | 3.3% | 7.7% |
| Writing and content creation | 2.7% | 7.7% |
A role can span more than one category. The first column divides each role evenly across its categories and sums to 100%. The second counts every role that touches a category at all and sums to more than 100% by design.
What this does and does not show
Put side by side, the two datasets describe something that does not appear in any employment statistic. A number of American businesses are staffing roles through a channel that no official survey counts, at a speed that has no equivalent in the domestic hiring numbers.
What we can say
The channel exists, it is being used by American businesses, and it operates on a different timescale from domestic hiring.
What we cannot say
We hold no data on whether these companies tried to hire locally before looking offshore, or how long the role sat open before they did. We therefore make no causal claim. We are not saying these roles were filled offshore because domestic hiring failed. We are showing two things happening at the same time in the same segment of the economy.
One thing the composition does tell us
Nearly three quarters of these roles are part-time, and half are opened at exactly 80 hours a month. That is not the shape of a full-time position that has been moved somewhere else. For a large share of these businesses the alternative to a half-time offshore assistant was not a domestic hire at the same scope. It was doing the work themselves, or not doing it.
We are adding a question to our intake process asking clients directly whether they attempted to fill the role locally first. Until that data exists, this report shows a correlation and says so.
“Almost every business I have ever spoken to tried to hire locally first. That is where they start, because that is the default. What we see is what happens after that. Someone posts the role, waits a few months, and either finds nobody suitable or finds someone at a price that does not work for a role they only need half the time. We do not have data that tells us how many of our clients went through that, so I can only speak from the conversations I have.”
What we looked for and did not find
Time zone does not predict time to fill. Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific clients fill roles at broadly similar speeds despite gaps to Manila ranging from twelve to fifteen hours.
We could not test company size against hiring speed. The employee-count field in our system is not currently clean enough to support the comparison. Work to resolve it is in progress.
We could not measure whether local hiring was attempted. This is the central missing variable in this report and we name it rather than working around it. It is being added to our intake process.
We report these because a relationship that turns out not to exist is still a result, and because a limitation named openly is worth more than one a reader has to find.
For journalists
How to cite this data
Attribute our figures to “VA Masters, The Hiring Channel Nobody Counts 2026” and link to this page. Carry the data period with the figure, for example “median 12 days to fill, US roles opened February to August 2026”. Attribute the survey figures to NFIB, not to us, and check them against the current monthly release before quoting them as current.
Media contact
Interviews, additional data cuts, and methodology questions:
[email protected]
+1 (312) 766-0301
Press room & full dataset
Press coverage & media kit · State of the Filipino VA Industry 2026
Boilerplate
VA Masters is a global recruitment agency founded in 2021 that places rigorously vetted Filipino virtual assistants with businesses across the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Europe. Over 1,000 placements to date.
Company facts
Founded: 2021 · Founder & CEO: Alon Pearl · Placements: 1,000+ · Vetting: 6 stages
Questions & Answers
Common questions about this pairing of datasets and what it can support.
How long does it take a US small business to fill a role offshore?
A median of 12 days across 220 US roles opened between February and August 2026. 62% were filled within two weeks and 87% within a month, and the fastest quartile closed in six days or fewer.
Are American small businesses struggling to hire?
According to NFIB, yes. Its July 2026 survey found 36% of small business owners reporting job openings they could not fill, the highest reading since June 2025 against a long-run average of 24%. Among owners hiring or trying to hire, 85% saw few or no qualified applicants. Those are NFIB's figures, not ours, and NFIB publishes monthly.
Are these offshore roles replacing American jobs?
This report makes no such claim, and the data does not support one. We hold no information on whether these companies tried to hire locally first, so we make no causal claim at all. What the composition does show is that 73% of these roles are part-time and half are opened at exactly 80 hours a month. That is not the shape of a full-time position that has been moved somewhere else.
What kind of work are American small businesses sending offshore?
Administrative and operations support accounts for 40.8% of US demand, followed by sales and business development at 12.7% and marketing at 9.9%. Roughly two thirds of roles include an administrative component.
How many hours do these roles run?
The median request is 80 hours a month, which is half-time. 52% of US roles are opened at exactly that figure, and only 25% at 160 hours or more.
Why can't you say whether these businesses tried to hire locally first?
Because we do not collect it. That field does not exist in our records and cannot be reconstructed after the fact. We are adding the question to our intake process, and until that data accrues this report shows a correlation and says so rather than implying a cause.
Are the two datasets directly comparable?
No, and we do not treat them as such. NFIB surveys a representative sample of American small businesses about their own hiring. Ours is a record of roles opened with one offshore recruitment company. They are presented alongside each other because they describe the same segment of the economy at the same time, not because they measure the same thing.
Can I cite these figures?
Yes. Attribute our figures to “VA Masters, The Hiring Channel Nobody Counts 2026” with the data period stated, and attribute the survey figures to NFIB. For additional cuts or an interview, contact [email protected].
Methodology & Definitions
Our data
The VA Masters positions database, exported 2 September 2026. 220 roles opened between February and August 2026 by 174 companies located in the United States. February is the start point because structured role data reaches complete coverage from that month.
Unit
Figures count roles, not companies. A company may open more than one role. The positions table includes roles opened by companies that are no longer active clients, so this measures demand over the period rather than the current client base.
Time to fill
Calculated over the 101 of those roles with a recorded close date. Roles still open are excluded, which means fast-filling roles are somewhat over-represented in the median. We state this rather than leaving it to the reader to work out.
External data
NFIB Small Business Economic Trends, July 2026. Cited as published. We have not recalculated or reweighted any NFIB figure and we do not claim any methodological alignment between their survey and our records. NFIB publishes monthly, so these readings are superseded on a regular cycle.
The two datasets are not directly comparable
NFIB surveys a representative sample of American small businesses about their own hiring. Ours is a record of roles opened with one offshore recruitment company. They are presented alongside each other because they describe the same segment of the economy at the same time, not because they measure the same thing.
Exclusions
Roles opened by VA Masters for its own internal team. Client names. Absolute counts of roles by category. Any pay or rate figure.
About this data
The VA Masters portion of this report describes what passes through one company, not the offshore hiring market as a whole. Every dataset of this kind reflects the business that produced it. Our client base skews toward the companies that find us, and most arrive on their own through search, through AI assistants, and through referrals from existing clients. A different offshore recruiter would show a different mix.
We think the sample still says something real. 220 roles from 174 separate American companies over seven months is a substantial base, and the composition is stable across the period. But a reader should treat it as a detailed view of one large pipeline, not a measurement of national offshore demand. The NFIB figures are external and should be attributed to NFIB.
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