This month, as online shopping surged in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, Amazon announced that it would hire 100,000 new workers and raise the pay of its current delivery workforce.
Amazon is far from alone. Across the country, in industries ranging from delivery services to grocery stores, from pharmacies and makers of medical products to online-learning companies and cleaning services, businesses are scrambling for workers.
As America changes rapidly in response to the pandemic, this hiring spree offers a glimmer of hope to those looking to get back to work as soon as possible.
State job portals that compile and advertise these rapidly emerging positions open a window onto the extent of this hiring. The New Jersey Department of Labor has launched a site listing jobs at companies expanding their workforces.
In the Garden State, where Amazon has 14 facilities, the online retail giant is looking to add 3,400 new workers to the 800,000 people it already employs in the United States.
Walmart, which has sought to match the growth of Amazon in online ordering and delivery, is looking to add 150,000 workers nationwide. It’s seeking to hire 1,000 workers in New Jersey in stores and at distribution centers.
The drugstore giant CVS, with stores in 40 states, is adding 50,000 workers, including some laid off from hotel chains like Marriott and Hilton. The company has 1,100 job openings in New Jersey alone.
Plenty of local companies are also in the market for new employees. One of New Jersey’s largest grocery chains, ShopRite, with 145 locations around the state, is looking for 1,500 new workers. Similar expansions are happening around the country. The nation’s largest grocery chain, Kroger, has already hired 2,000 people due to increased demand.
Someone must make the products that online sellers are scrambling to deliver. PepsiCo employs 90,000 people in its North American plants, which produce everything from soda to Lay’s potato chips to Tropicana orange juice. The company is adding 6,000 full-time workers — with full benefits — to its job rolls.
GE Healthcare, whose product line includes desperately sought-after respirators, is adding shifts to its production cycle and looking for workers in dozens of specialized capacities.
Bednark Studio, a Brooklyn company that produces retail display fixtures, has moved to assembling face shields, too. The company is calling back laid-off workers and looking to employ out-of-work restaurant and bar staffers.
With enrollment in online courses soaring, Outschool, which offers 10,000 video-assisted classes from preschool through high school, is looking to hire 5,000 new teachers; instructors don’t need teaching certification. Outschool hires based on an individual’s work expertise and pays up to $40 an hour. Of course, employees get to work from home.
All this comes as unemployment claims surge around the country in an unprecedented setting — a sudden, sharp closing down of the economy. Nearly 3.3 million people nationally filed for unemployment the week ending March 21, a record.
The federal government has stepped up to help by offering federal payments of up to $600 per week for each laid-off worker. That subsidy would add to what states already pay the unemployed.
These benefits, which can go above $1,000 a week in some states, will be a welcome relief to those out of work, but they may also be a disincentive to some of those laid off to get back into the workforce — and may consequently make it more difficult for firms trying to scale up hiring to find the people they need.
After the 2008 recession, Congress extended unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks — or four times the normal length of the program. Studies estimated that those extra benefits hampered the recovery and that without them, the unemployment rate would have dropped faster.
Avoiding a similar outcome this time will require Congress to keep a close eye on the recovery that’s likely to begin quickly after we get the virus under control and people begin heading back to work.
Before the sudden shutdowns, the country’s jobless rate was a mere 3.5 percent, the lowest in 50 years. Companies like Amazon, Outschool and others rushing to hire are betting that we’re heading back there again quickly.
Steven Malanga is a senior editor of City Journal, from which this column was adapted.
SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES
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