Weekly Hourly Hiring Report 10/19/21

How COVID-19 is affecting hourly work

Weekly Hourly Hiring Report 10/19/21

Highlights

Overall jobs are up 73% compared to pre-pandemic norms, with a 26% month over month decline and 65% year over year growth. Google searches for hourly jobs are down 4% year over year. 

There are 10 weeks until Christmas and employers across nearly every industry are feeling the labor crunch. Businesses from retailers and restaurants to grocery stores and hotels are competing for hourly workers, in most cases offering pay raises, hiring bonuses and other perks.

Large retailers and e-commerce players are working to hire hundreds of thousands of people ahead of the holidays at a time when workers are scarce. The labor force is still about 4.3 million workers short of pre-pandemic levels.

During the pandemic, many parents have stayed out of work to care for children while they were home from schools and daycare. Other people have taken time off to re-evaluate their priorities. 

Here’s what we’re seeing:

• Amazon is hiring 150,000 additional seasonal workers with an average starting pay of $18 per hour, sign-on bonuses up to $3,000 and an additional $3 per hour depending on shifts in many locations, plus the opportunity to transition to long-term careers.

• Walmart is also hiring 150,000 more workers this season, many of which will transition to permanent positions.

• Target anticipates that current store employees will work about 5 million more hours this holiday season—trimming back on seasonal hires. The big-box retailer has launched an app that allows workers to pick up an extra shift on demand. Target still plans to hire about 100,000 seasonal employees — but that’s smaller than the more than 130,000 that it hired for each of the past two holiday seasons.

• Just in time for their National Hiring Day, on October 25, Texas Roadhouse has announced that any employee who works 30 hours or more a week will now be eligible for $5,250 in annual tuition reimbursement.

• Williams-Sonoma is bringing back its remote seasonal opportunities for the 2021 holidays. Workers score a 40% discount at the company’s many brands, including Pottery Barn and West Elm. Opportunities are scattered across the company’s remote customer care centers in multiple states including Alabama, Nevada, Ohio, Florida and North Carolina.

The holiday season is here, adding to the hiring urgency and worker retention concerns for many. Our Holiday Hiring 2021: A Quick Start Guide is a good resource for hourly employers and workers looking to prepare for the upcoming season. We surveyed thousands of hourly workers and employers and analyzed labor market trends to create this guide—everything you need and want to know.

Jobs

All industry data is from 3/2/20-10/18/21

Here are the latest job numbers by industry:

Quick service restaurant (QSR) jobs are down 25% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 6% month over month decline and 5% year over year growth.

Sit-down restaurant jobs are down 38% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 3% month over month decline and 9% year over year growth.

Warehouse and logistics jobs are up 348% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 4% month over month growth and 12% year over year growth.

Retail jobs are up 43% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 7% month over month growth and 63% year over year growth.

Grocery jobs are up 69% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 23% month over month decline and 13% year over year growth.

Hospitality jobs are up 294% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 21% month over month decline and 329% year over year growth.

On demand jobs are up 154% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 68% month over month decline and 107% year over year growth.

Convenience store jobs are down 17% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 12% month over month decline and a 1% year over year decline.

Healthcare jobs are up 112% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 17% month over month decline and 99% year over year growth.

Workers

Google searches for hourly jobs are down 4% year over year.

The bottom line

We’ll continue to be your best resource for hourly job market insights as we collectively navigate towards our new normal and beyond.