Weekly Hourly Hiring Report 10/5/21

How COVID-19 is affecting hourly work

Weekly Hourly Hiring Report 10/5/21

Highlights

Overall jobs are up 95% compared to pre-pandemic norms, with a 4% month over month decline and 87% year over year growth. Google searches for hourly jobs are down 1% year over year. 

In anticipation of the September Jobs Report that comes out this Friday, economists and labor market watchers predict the data will confirm what many employers are feeling— the end of extended unemployment benefits and kids returning to school didn’t boost job market participation.

Goldman analysts believe that cutting off the benefits last month will only boost hiring by about 1.3 million jobs through the end of the year—less than 20% of the estimated 7.5 million people who ultimately lost benefits last month.

As Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust, said to the Wall Street Journal, “It will likely take three to six months before labor-force participation returns to near pre-pandemic levels. We had such immense early progress in bringing back jobs that it became easy to forget that the last mile was always going to be the hardest.” 

We’re watching three driving factors:

1. Childcare continues to be a challenge: 

• According to a Yahoo Finance-Harris survey, 73% of parents said childcare demands influence their job decisions, including whether or not to work at all. 

• In our recent survey, Snagajob found that 27% of currently unemployed hourly workers are parents.

Action: Parents and care-givers need flexibility, and 70% of applicants look for flexible scheduling in a job description when deciding whether to apply. Make sure to highlight flexibility.

2. The Delta variant heightened workers’ fear about returning to work:

• More than 3 million people say the risk of COVID-19 is still their main reason for not working, according to the latest Census Household Pulse Survey.

• According to a recent Snagajob survey of over 1,800 hourly workers, 49% consider public interaction when applying for a job.

Action: Highlight any safety precautions your business is taking to protect workers in the job description. 

3. The evolution of the labor pool: 

• A staggering 1.5 million workers retired early during the pandemic, on top of another 900,000 who naturally aged out of the workforce.

• 33% of job seekers are first-time job seekers, making-up the largest group of active applicants. 

Action: The labor pool has changed. Have you changed your sourcing, hiring practices, job descriptions and benefits to meet what actively searching workers want?

The upcoming holiday season is here, adding to the hiring urgency and worker retention concerns for many.

Our Holiday Hiring 2021: A Quick Start Guide helps hourly employers and workers understand how to best prepare for the upcoming season amid current challenges. We surveyed thousands of hourly workers and employers, analyzed the macro economics and labor market projections, to create a data synthesis and quick start guide—everything you need and want to know.

Jobs

All industry data is from 3/2/20-10/4/21

Here are the latest job numbers by industry:

Quick service restaurant (QSR) jobs are down 21% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 2% month over month decline and 10% year over year growth.

Sit-down restaurant jobs are down 32% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 2% month over month growth and 14% year over year growth.

Warehouse and logistics jobs are up 421% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 77% month over month growth and 84% year over year growth.

Retail jobs are up 57% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 21% month over month growth and 77% year over year growth.

Grocery jobs are up 76% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 16% month over month decline and 19% 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 198% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 24% month over month decline and 152% year over year growth.

Convenience store jobs are down 5% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 1% month over month growth and 11% year over year growth.

Healthcare jobs are up 133% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 4% month over month growth and 119% year over year growth.

Workers

Google searches for hourly jobs are down 1% 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.