A Job Market Inspired by Covid-19
With millions of jobless individuals, employment hassles and routine disruptions, it’s easy to miss the (unexpected) opportunities that Covid-19 has brought along with it.
One thing has been made very clear: the job market is in need of new seasonal jobs made vital due to the pandemic.
Retailers, e-commerce, supply chains, delivery and other industries are recruiting workers by the thousands in order to accommodate changes in demand and properly maintain health protocols. The job market is suddenly finding itself in need of positions that did not exist prior to Covid-19, or jobs that are now requiring a greater number of employees in order to handle the newly heavy (both literally and metaphorically) load.
Jobs Created by Coronavirus
The country’s largest businesses have been recruiting workers for a variety of new positions that have been “inspired” by the pandemic outbreak.
Health and Safety
Businesses were hit with the reality that in order to successfully continue to operate, they would need to create more job titles that can help manage health and safety at the workplace.
How can businesses guarantee their customers a safe experience? Employees are being recruited to assure that health protocols are being followed and risks are at a minimum. Popular job roles include managing customer traffic, sanitizing goods and checking temperatures at the door.
Equally as important is the need to monitor the health of the entire team. In order to do so efficiently, employees are being appointed into roles to help schedule and monitor the health of their workforce. In many cases, this is made possible by the use of smart systems and automated declaration health forms to assess employee health before coming face-to-face with one another or with customers.
Remote Culture
Along with seasonal in-store job roles, this year we are seeing an influx of remote jobs across nearly all industry sectors.
“Work from home” has become a safe way to continue working throughout the pandemic. Of course, while not all jobs are able to be done remotely or from home (like warehouse workers or cashiers, for example), in most cases when businesses could allow their employees to operate from a remote location, they have done so .
Companies that have hired workers for call centers, data entry, order management and other positions have traditionally employed them for in-store or on-site jobs. Now, with Covid-19 as the final push, these jobs have transitioned to being remote for many of these companies. Seasonal employees are able to work from home in these positions and more.
With so many employees working remotely, many companies have created a new title entirely - manager of remote workers. This position is responsible for monitoring the employees working from home, tracking working hours, following up on projects and results, and more.
Are employees happy with the new type of seasonal work offered? Actually, 64% of workers in general said that they wanted the flexibility to work remotely at least part of the time (KPMG Advisory). Since both employees and employers benefit, it’s hard to see why they wouldn’t. Employees have recognized the advantages of remote work like improved work-life balance, while employers are able to run their business with less office space, lower overhead costs and greater employee satisfaction.
Supply and Demand
What other jobs are in dire need of new hires? There are high expectations for the outcome of this year’s holiday shopping, leading to a massive recruitment of workers for driving, loading, stocking, packaging, warehouses, logistics, e-commerce fulfilment centers, distribution, greeting, safety and cleaning.
Companies That Are Hiring - By the Thousands
At the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, companies like Amazon were recruiting by the thousands in order to help with the spike of orders received. Now for this holiday season, Amazon, Target, Walmart, UPS and other major players announced plans to hire another wave of thousands of seasonal workers for distribution centers, deliveries, sorting, tech, safety, cleaning and other positions.
An example of the seasonal recruitment plan for 2020:
- Target - plans to hire 130,000 seasonal employees
- Amazon - plans to hire 100,000 seasonal employees
- UPS - plans to hire 100,000 seasonal employees
- FedEx - plans to hire 70,000 seasonal employees
- Macy’s - plans to hire 25,000 seasonal employees
- Walmart - plans to hire 20,000 seasonal employees
- 1-800-Flowers.com - plans to hire 10,000 seasonal employees
The Evolution of the New Seasonal Worker
The modern version of today’s seasonal worker is a transition from the traditional sales figure to the array of flexible opportunities made necessary by today’s changing conditions.
E-commerce and other online consumer activity consists of a very large portion of total seasonal sales. Hence, the new flexible worker has emerged.
The seasonal worker has many different faces. According to the Wall Street Journal, some of these businesses are bringing a super advanced addition to their warehouse team. Yes, fleets of robots will be helping to handle the massive increase of expected orders.
In accordance with current workforce and hiring trends, we expect to see a steady increase in seasonal worker recruitment in the coming time periods as these companies need more and workers and an extra set of hands to help from everything to customer service to delivering the product itself. Many companies even after the season holidays pass and even after the pandemic subsides will start implementing a more flexible workforce and scheduling model, even if they didn’t already have a dynamic work culture prior to Covid-19.