Weekly Hourly Hiring Report 11/2/2021
How COVID-19 is affecting hourly work
Weekly Hourly Hiring Report 11/2/21
Highlights
Overall jobs are up 43% compared to pre-pandemic norms, with a 14% month over month decline and 25% year over year growth. Google searches for hourly jobs are up 4% year over year.
In related news, the Google search term “job” has finally overtaken “unemployment”— for the first time since March 2020.
New unemployment claims have fallen every week for a month straight — down to a pandemic low of 281,000. Service sector employers — the largest portion of the economy, by far — are increasing workforce numbers at the quickest rate since June.
While these are positive indicators, the pandemic’s impact on the labor force long term is more likely that it sped up the process of hourly workers quitting jobs with unfavorable pay and conditions. The pandemic rapidly gave workers the platform to act on frustrations that had been accumulating for quite some time. As Laszlo Bock, former human resources executive at Google and co-found of HR consulting firm Humu said, “We have talked a lot about essential workers, but we actually treat them as essential jobs. We treat the workers as quite replaceable."
While the spotlight is on the labor shortage and worker acquisition now, retaining your existing hourly employees has also never been more important.
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 3/2/20-11/1/21
Here are the latest job numbers by industry:
Quick service restaurant (QSR) jobs are down 26% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 1% month over month decline and 2% year over year growth.
Sit-down restaurant jobs are down 35% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 4% month over month growth and 13% year over year growth.
Warehouse and logistics jobs are up 405% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 46% month over month growth and 31% year over year growth.
Retail jobs are up 36% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing an 11% month over month decline and 52% year over year growth.
Grocery jobs are up 73% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 4% month over month growth and 4% year over year growth.
Hospitality jobs are up 271% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 16% month over month decline and 249% year over year growth.
On demand jobs are up 72% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 46% month over month decline and a 3% year over year decline.
Convenience store jobs are down 7% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 14% month over month growth and 9% year over year growth.
Healthcare jobs are up 77% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 23% month over month decline and 48% year over year growth.
Workers
Google searches for hourly jobs are up 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.