❗Help close the gap: We still need to raise $40,000 by the end of March. Donate now
COVID & Unemployment

Holiday temp work down this year, even with a lot of e-commerce hiring

Mitchell Hartman Dec 24, 2020
Heard on:
HTML EMBED:
COPY
Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images
COVID & Unemployment

Holiday temp work down this year, even with a lot of e-commerce hiring

Mitchell Hartman Dec 24, 2020
Heard on:
Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images
HTML EMBED:
COPY

In normal times, the lead-up to the holidays is when employment spikes sharply, with hundreds of thousands of temporary jobs added in retail, hospitality, bars and restaurants.

But COVID-19 has tamped down the typical seasonal boost to pay and employment this year.

Stores and malls hired around 700,000 temporary seasonal workers in the fall of 2019. As of the end of November this year, gains in temporary jobs were running way behind that pace:

Retail hiring fell 12.5% — a fairly significant drop-off,” said Andy Challenger at outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. He said there’s more e-commerce hiring.

“A big boom in the transportation and warehousing sectors, up about 137%,” he said.

That still only makes up about half the seasonal jobs missing from brick-and-mortar retailers, Challenger added.

There’s a slowdown for app-based gig workers, too. Last year, Joe Fifield drove for Uber and Lyft in Minneapolis to supplement his income. This year, he’s delivering for DoorDash and said it’s not as easy to make money.

You spend a lot more time driving with an empty car,” he said.

Fifield said he’s making about 20% less than last year.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.