Weekly Hourly Hiring Report 6/8/2021

How COVID-19 is affecting hourly work

Weekly Hourly Hiring Report 6/8/21

Highlights

Overall jobs are up 76% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 14% month over month growth and 110% year over year growth.

Last week’s May jobs report showed that U.S. job growth and worker pay are on the rise. Payrolls increased by 559,000—186,000 of which were in restaurants and bars—yet fell short of economists’ prediction of 675,000. While the addition of more than a half-million jobs is positive, labor shortages are still limiting job growth. The U.S. labor market is still 7.6 million jobs short of pre-pandemic levels.

There is an ongoing mismatch between the hourly labor supply and demand that will make it more difficult for the economy to fully recover near term. In a normal recession, or otherwise, a month with more than 500,000 new jobs created would be something to celebrate.

US businesses need people to come back to work. There are a combination of motivators working to encourage this. First, 25 states are ending their participation in pandemic-era unemployment programs, some as soon as this week, nearly three months ahead of their official expiration date. And even more importantly, employers are finding ways to get applicants in the door and to retain employees once they’re hired—as reported by the New York Times this morning, everything from free appetizers to tuition are up for grabs.

Jobs

All industry data is from 3/2/20-6/8/21

Here are the latest job numbers by industry:

Quick service restaurant (QSR) jobs are down 20% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 5% month over month growth and 3% year over year growth.

Sit-down restaurant jobs are down 39% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 12% month over month decline and 13% year over year growth.

Warehouse and logistics jobs are up 243% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 29% month over month growth and 159% year over year growth.

Retail jobs are up 14% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 23% month over month growth and 61% year over year growth.

Grocery jobs are up 82% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 2% month over month growth and 57% year over year growth.

Hospitality jobs are 225% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 45% month over month growth and 325% year over year growth.

On demand jobs are up 178% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 28% month over month growth and 239% year over year growth.

Convenience store jobs are down 21% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 4% month over month growth and 4% year over year growth.

Healthcare jobs are up 90% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 5% month over month decline and 83% year over year growth.

Workers

Google searches for part-time 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.