As COVID-19 sparks massive job losses, some sectors are seeing a surge in hiring
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only endangered people's health but also their future by crippling the economy. The US, which was doing great in terms of employment even in February, saw an unprecedented collapse once the outbreak started and now has 22 million jobs eradicated, nullifying a decade of job gains.
The hourly job market has also been battered by the pandemic that has affected over 667,000 people in the country. The entire dynamic of the job market has changed in a big way over the last few weeks and Snagajob, the largest site for hourly jobs, has shared details on the job scenario in the country.
Overall, job postings are down by almost 40 percent from their peak a month ago, according to Snagajob. The hardest-hit sectors are sit-down restaurants, staffing forms and entertainment and it said for those who are searching for jobs, warehousing, logistics, retail, groceries and transportation are the areas where hiring is up.
E-commerce giant Amazon has increased its hiring recently. On Monday, April 13, it revealed its plan to recruit additional 75,000 workers at its facilities which is on top of the 100,000 new positions it created in March.
Then, it said it would hire additional warehouse and delivery workers across the US since online shopping went up during the pandemic. Amazon’s hiring spree also came under the scanner after it was alleged that it was not observing social-distancing measures at hiring events. The company later said it has made hiring events virtual.
Dip in job postings by 40%
Snagajob came up with a chart tracking the progress of hourly jobs between February 3 and April 1 and showed that while jobs peaked on March 4, it slipped by 41 percent by April 1. However, if compared to the starting date of the analysis, the postings are down by less than 13 percent.
"There is a bright spot though. There's a small uptick in job postings in the most recent dates. There is a complete reordering of the hourly job market, where some categories have disappeared for the time being, but others are growing," the Snagajob report said.
Snagajob also came up with another chart that showed the changes happening in postings of jobs in the pre- and post-pandemic times. In areas like logistics/warehousing, the postings went up by over 156 percent while in retail, it is nearly 15 percent and transportation, over 11 percent.
Grocery saw a rise by 6.5 percent while services saw a 0.5 percent rise. Staffing, on the other hand, saw a 74 percent dip in postings while entertainment saw 46 percent, hospitality 34 percent and restaurants 30.2 percent.
It's not all bad news, said Snagajob. Finally, 122 largest metro areas listed on Snagajob, 113 saw a fall in hourly jobs. While places like Lafayette and Louisiana saw nearly 60 percent fall in job postings for hourly workers, Boston, Seattle and San Francisco have seen a rise in job postings on Snagajob after the outbreak.
