Early in quarantine, many citizens lost their jobs. According to AARP, many service workers and small business owners were out of jobs. However, many job opportunities were emerging with delivery companies. With the danger of going outside, delivery services like Amazon have been growing more and more popular which means a need for additional employees.
From a chart from NYTimes, it can be seen that the trend doesn't just apply to Amazon and Uber Eats. From May to July, there was a significant jump in job creation. However, unlike Amazon, the job creation rate has started to slow down to the point where if this trend continues, it will take a long time before the job market can recover from the devastating blows dealt by the pandemic. All the new job opportunities only make up 55% of the 22 million jobs lost since the beginning of the Covid outbreak and the rate at which we are recovering has been flattening out since August. Seeing how another huge spike in Covid-19 cases has occurred, it is possible that we will go through a similar surge in job losses, but smaller in size. In order to try to recover from this recession, there will likely be many professions that will become impractical, and those former job owners will need to find something new until the pandemic completely blows over.
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While new jobs have been created in the delivery sector, it is clear that those in the service industry have been hit hard during the pandemic, as their hard, reliable work is appreciated now more than ever before. The pandemic has clearly exacerbated the changing times, and thus the modernization of jobs that will no longer be necessary in the future. COVID-19 has changed the job market indefinitely, and it will be interesting to see what new jobs will be created as a result. With the increased reliance on Zoom, and other virtual communication platforms, more jobs may be created in the design and formation of similar applications. Living in Silicon Valley, the already booming technology industry will continue to expand, as more people grow to rely on video games, streaming services and catering companies.
Contrastingly, many travel and hospitality services are struggling during the pandemic, without the financial support from tourists. Airbnb, airlines and restaurants have been trying to stay afloat, but many small businesses and visitor-less destinations are forced to shut down due to the inadequate income they are acquiring. Buying or renting houses has deterred many, as the fear of entering a stranger's contaminated house is threatening and discomforting. With remote working, it will be interesting to see if real estate companies hop on the virtual bandwagon, opting for online open houses and transferring the whole process to computers, maintaining the safety of our own homes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/03/19/the-coronavirus-effect-here-are-the-jobs-that-will-be-added-and-lost/?sh=7e71e6c22a1c
It's evident that during this pandemic, there has been a surge in demand for jobs to support delivery companies and companies that rely on online communication as their main platform for surviving financially as everyone has been ordering more online and using Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, etc. To Rosella's point about hospitality and travel services struggling to stay afloat during this pandemic, I'm unsure how they will survive as their reliance on tourism and in-person interaction has been cut off. We can see, for example, Hawaii has been intensely struggling as the mayor's strict COVID-19 guidelines have essentially prevented tourists from wanting to travel for vacation. Though some visitors have gone through the extensive testing and quarantine process to travel to the islands and support the businesses there, some locals have even put up signs in their restaurants, refusing service to tourists. Everyone is losing jobs, and some are even choosing to refuse business due to fear and frustration. It's going to be an interesting ride to see how these local businesses will attempt to survive with the circumstances of this year.
The growth of DoorDash supports Tim’s claim that delivery companies have been benefiting from the pandemic. Many restaurants rely on DoorDash in order to keep making money as much fewer people are willing to eat in-person. According to New York Times, the company’s revenue more than tripled to $1.92 billion from what it was 9 months before. In the month of September, the company took 543 million orders compared to 181 million one year ago. Furthermore, investors sought to capitalize on DoorDash’s growth this morning; DoorDash has just gone public today, and its stock price rose to $189.51, which is 86% higher than its IPO of $102 (initial public offering price). Thus, delivery companies are definitely profitable right now, and it looks like it will stay that way as long as the pandemic continues, causing the job market to shift dramatically.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/technology/doordash-ipo-stock.html
Alex's comment made me wonder about the future of delivery companies and the implications of the creation of the vaccine. Obviously, things won't go back to 'normal' any time soon, but if/when it does, how will that affect industries that have grown during the pandemic (such as delivery services)? If there is less exigence for people to order food, will delivery companies end up laying off their employees (thus causing the job market to shift yet again)? This pandemic has definitely illustrated the instability of the job market. I was always taught to see jobs as stable and long-term sources of income, but seeing how many people have been laid off has tainted that image. Jobs, like most other things, are not permanent, so it is best to always have alternate options in case things go awry.
Also bouncing off of Alex's comment, it really seems like the pandemic is speedrunning change to the face of the industry, putting emphasis on essential service jobs and delivery services, as well as online services. Lots of other jobs will likely see a decline as time goes on, since a lot of in-person jobs are now seen as unnecessary financial risks, since a lot of those jobs are being automated and/or replaced with internet jobs. While this amount of change very quickly usually leads to a deficit in the amount of people available to work on the new jobs, overall the change has shown that the job industry can change very easily and very quickly and our economy can in fact adapt to a post-COVID world given time.
I believe that certain industries may have been hit incredibly hard and had to downsize, but for individuals, as the coronavirus spread begins to ease up, there will be a ton of work to cover for certain fiscal quarters. With the government issuing coronavirus aid in the forms of stimulus packages and job creation, I can see America bouncing back from this time era. As Rosella mentioned, the field will also switch more into tech and biology as schools become digitized and the race to find a cure begins. This will certainly affect industries such as big oil, or car manufacturing as transportation becomes an afterthought. In essence, the shifts in priority industries and job marketing will bring us to the future, and indicate what might be more prominent to come such as the rising of Silicon Valley.
The US has become a country providing more services than resources, although many states tend to specialize in certain productions, California's being farming. Overall, though, I think it is important to realize that services are being less heavily impacted by the virus than are other jobs. I think this is partially because of how easily services have integrated with the internet, and are thus less dependent on a lot of day-to-day factors, such as COVID precautions. As much as the more immediate effects will include job loss and business closures, I think it will lead to the imminent integration of all companies with the internet. I think that many of us find it comforting knowing that we can just call the local pizza restaurant and get something delivered with little risk, let alone the factor that it is more comfortable to stay home (although I'm sure we're all missing dining right now). The internet is a gateway to strengthen the reliability of our daily services, and I think that business closures and successes reveal how important it is and how much more important it will be.
I am in no way surprised that companies such as Amazon and Doordash are thriving during the pandemic. Their whole businesses are created off of consumer convenience and distanced interactions so it makes sense that they would be thriving to the point of them needing to hire more people to keep up with the huge influx in business. In one sense, I'm glad that companies like Doordash are thriving because smaller restaurants that use them also benefit off them as well, however, I don't know how much they actually benefit because I don't think that they're great for small businesses financially (I've heard some talk about how the delivery companies take a large commission). (https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/coronavirus/third-party-delivery-services-can-help-and-hurt-business-bethesda-restaurateurs-say/) Building off of Vasilis statement, I do think that we're somewhat lucky though that this pandemic was during a time in which our technology and accessibility are fairly well developed. It would be very hard to not have so many already established contact-free businesses.
Many people appreciate and see good reason for why jobs in companies such as Amazon, Postmates or Instacart are increasing. Instacart provides a safe alternative to grocery shopping in person whereas Amazon serves to many as an alternative to retail stores for holiday shopping. At the end of the day services that are contactless and decrease the risk of contracting covid are thriving right now. I agree with Malia we are very lucky to have these resources and options available to us.
However for food delivery, I have heard it is better (for small business at least) to directly get takeout from them as the third party delivery services take a big cut. (https://www.businessinsider.com/grubhub-uber-eats-postmates-third-party-food-delivery-is-broken-2020-5) Similar to what Malia said, in this situation it's more beneficial to order takeout directly from these restaurants.
As these areas are doing well, many business are shutting down and people are losing their jobs. From our side we can help by supporting small businesses, especially during the holiday season.
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