Weekly Hourly Hiring Repot 4/27/2021

Overall jobs are up 63% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 16% month over month growth and 109% year over year growth.

The battle is on for workers. As the economy rebounds, many businesses are finding it hard to attract and hire enough people. Though the pervasive ‘help wanted’ feeling looms today, the situation will ease in the fall when unemployment benefits and stimulus funds expire and kids go back to physical school.

The National Restaurant Association’s most recent survey found that 1 in 4 restaurant operators listed recruitment as their top concern, ranking it higher than COVID-19. The group  suspects these three things are to blame:

• People are still afraid to work in a closed environment. 

• Workers are switching to industries that offer flexibility and minimal public interaction.

• Unemployment benefits exceed pay for many jobs. This dampens the urgency to re-enter the labor force. 

To find and keep good employees, businesses are piling on more perks. PilotFlyingJ is hiring  5,000 new team members—offering a long list of benefits including atypical perks for the hourly space like paid parental leave and wellness programs.

Not all hourly workers are staying on the sidelines however. There are groups of people looking for work, including:

• First time job seekers and their friends.

• College students and recent graduates. Staffing agency LaSalle Network reports that 88% of college graduates do not have a job lined up post-graduation. 

• Women. Approximately 13.4 million women in the United States lost or quit their jobs during the pandemic. As summer programs and schools extend hours back to full-time, women will re-enter the workforce. 

Jobs

All industry data is from 3/2/20-4/26/21

Here are the latest job numbers by industry:

Quick service restaurant (QSR) jobs are down 28% compared to pre-pandemic norms, flat month over month, with a 2% year over year decline.

Sit-down restaurant jobs are down 32% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 4% month over month growth and 37% year over year growth.

Warehouse and logistics jobs are up 209% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 68% month over month growth and 5% year over year growth.

Retail jobs are down 17% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 10% month over month growth and 17% year over year growth.

Grocery jobs are up 32% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 14% month over month growth and 28% year over year growth.

Hospitality jobs are up 148% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 72% month over month growth and 214% year over year growth.

On demand jobs are up 154% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 16% month over month growth and 223% year over year growth.

Convenience store jobs are down 29% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 4% month over month growth and a 4% year over year decline.

Healthcare jobs are up 63% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 36% month over month growth and 73% year over year growth.

Workers

Google searches for hourly jobs are up 18% 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.