Weekly Hourly Hiring Report - 10/20/2020

Weekly Hourly Hiring Report 10/20/20

Highlights

Overall jobs are up 8% week over week, up 9% month over month and up 18% since early March. That’s good news, as the nation’s economic recovery is still fragile because of:

• Rising COVID-19 cases—after months of decline, hospitalizations have started rising again, indicating a potential third peak.

• Rising unemployment—new unemployment claims rose last week to almost 900K. That’s 100K more than the week before and the highest level since August.

• Delayed stimulus—the general consensus is that we’ll see another stimulus package after the election, but the wait has been frustrating for the 13 million unemployed Americans who need it.

In addition to jobs, other parts of the economy are showing positive signs as well. The housing market has several indicators above February levels, with record-low mortgage rates supporting demand. And retail sales have exceeded year-ago levels for the fourth consecutive week.

Jobs

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

Here are the latest job numbers by industry:

Quick service restaurant (QSR) jobs are up 3% week over week, flat month over month and down 27% since early March.

Sit-down restaurant jobs are down 2% week over week, down 1% month over month and down 46% since early March.

Warehouse and logistics jobs are up 94% week over week, down 9% month over month and up 460% since early March.

Retail jobs are up 8% week over week, up 10% month over month and down 6% since early March.

Grocery jobs are down 1% week over week, up 5% month over month and up 50% since early March.

Hospitality jobs are flat week over week, flat month over month and down 47% since early March.

On demand jobs are up 27% week over week, up 20% month over month and up 65% since early March.

Convenience store jobs are down 2% week over week, down 2% month over month and down 17% since early March.

Healthcare jobs are down 1% week over week, up 56% month over month and up 19% since early March.

What’s happening across America

All state data is from 3/2/20-10/20/20

Nashville, TN: Hospitality jobs are down 7% week over week, down 5% since early March. On demand jobs are up 28% week over week, down 1% since early March. Sit-down restaurant jobs are down 2% week over week, down 45% since early March.

Virginia Beach, VA: QSR jobs are up 29% week over week, down 18% since early March. Hospitality jobs are up 13% week over week, down 38% since early March. Retail jobs are up 2% week over week, up 34% since early March.

Los Angeles, CA: Retail jobs are up 15% week over week, down 27% since early March. Warehouse and logistics jobs are down 11% week over week, up 537% since early March. On demand jobs are up 76% week over week, up 217% since early March.

Chicago, IL: Hospitality jobs are up 17% week over week, up 63% since early March. Sit-down restaurant jobs are down 4% week over week, down 51% since early March. Retail jobs are up 11% week over week, down 4% since early March.

Workers

Google searches for part-time jobs are down 2% week over week, down 21% month over month and down 40% since early March.

The bottom line

As always, we’re staying tuned to economists, industry leaders and credible data sources—including our own. Plus, we continue to talk to hourly workers and employers to see how they’re feeling about the situation. 

We’ll keep you informed as the job market evolves in the critical weeks ahead with this weekly report and infographics.