Who's Hiring Amid Coronavirus Layoffs--Update
March 26 2020 - 3:52PM
Dow Jones News
By Chip Cutter
It isn't just major retailers and health-care giants hiring in
the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Moving companies, food
makers and others say they need additional help, too.
With more than three million people filing for unemployment
benefits last week--a record--plenty of Americans are now looking
for work. Economists say most of the job opportunities at the
moment involve getting food, medicine and other essential supplies
to people.
Amazon.com Inc. has said it plans to hire an additional 100,000
warehouse and delivery workers in the U.S. to keep up with surging
demand, while Walmart Inc. will hire 150,000 people to work in its
stores and fulfillment centers.
As more people cook at home, Blue Apron Holdings Inc. says it
wants to fill 300 roles at the company's fulfillment centers in
Linden, N.J., and Richmond, Calif., to meet a rise in demand for
its pre-apportioned meal kits.
The company hopes to hire people displaced by the restaurant or
food-service industry, said Linda Findley Kozlowski, Blue Apron's
chief executive.
Pet-food suppliers and cleaning products manufacturers are
hiring logistics and distribution staffers because of the outbreak,
said Adam Roston, chief executive of Bluecrew, an on-demand
staffing platform owned by IAC. "It's lots of places that are not
necessarily on the tops of consumers' minds."
GE Healthcare, meanwhile, said the company would hire additional
manufacturing employees as it ramps up ventilator production, even
as General Electric Co.'s jet-engine business will layoff about 10%
of its workforce.
On the job site Indeed.com, the company has seen an increase in
job postings for some roles, such as medical technicians and retail
stockers, but overall job postings are slowing, said Jed Kolko,
chief economist at the site. The new jobs to aid with the pandemic
likely won't be enough to make up for all those lost. "The trend in
job postings is down," he said.
Many companies have paused hiring entirely until it's clear how
long the outbreak lasts. "There's more room for uncertainty about
how severe this slowdown will be," Mr. Kolko said.
Those companies with open jobs say they are seeing a steep spike
in interest.
At Bellhops, a moving company that operates in 65 cities,
applications have risen 60% week-over-week, Chief Executive Luke
Marklin said. The company is hiring thousands of movers and drivers
across the country, because people are moving or relocating amid
the outbreak, Mr. Marklin said.
"We're not seeing any dip in demand" for moving services, he
said.
Some companies, such as Walmart and Target Corp., have raised
wages or offered bonuses to front-line workers, and others are
offering additional sick-leave benefits to compensate staffers,
should they become ill.
Sheetz, a convenience chain with 600 stores across the
mid-Atlantic, said it would temporarily raise the wages of its
17,000 hourly workers by $3 an hour. The company is hiring, and
wants to fill 1,300 open jobs, primarily staffers to work or manage
its stores, a spokeswoman said. Pay now ranges from $10 to $18 an
hour.
Write to Chip Cutter at chip.cutter@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 26, 2020 15:37 ET (19:37 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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