US jobs beginning to return from coronavirus shutdown. Which industries are hiring?
14% of companies have actually increased the number of available jobs they have since the beginning of March
The U.S. labor market is gradually beginning to recover from the unprecedented damage inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic.
In less than three months, the outbreak of the virus — and the related country-wide lockdown of businesses — gutted American jobs, triggering roughly 42 million layoffs. But the pain is starting to abate: On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that 1.87 million individuals filed for unemployment benefits the week ended May 30, marking the ninth straight weekly decline of jobless claims.
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"This is a terrible number, but weekly jobless claims have been on the decline over the past few weeks, as states across the country start to ease the coronavirus-driven lockdowns," said Mark Tepper, the president and CEO of Strategic Wealth Partners.
Hiring has resumed in some of the hardest-hit industries as states relax stay-at-home guidelines, according to a report released Wednesday by Glassdoor.
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Although seven in 10 employers have reduced their job openings and 28 percent have stopped hiring entirely, 14 percent of companies have actually increased the number of available jobs they have since the beginning of March, when the virus gained a foothold in the U.S., according to the report.
In May, job openings increased 5.7 percent for restaurants and bars compared to the previous month, 6.8 percent for the travel and tourism industry and 7.7 percent for private security. Jobs in the beauty and fitness sector grew 3.1 percent.
Still, job openings in travel and tourism are still well below pre-crisis levels, down 79.5 percent compared to the year-ago period.
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“While growth in job openings is encouraging, it will still take time for hard-hit industries to fully recover,” the report said.
A slew of industries continued to cut job openings. Information technology saw the most pronounced decline in job openings at 18.2 percent. But media and publishing job openings shrank by 14.9 percent and accounting and legal fell by 11.2 percent.
“The decline in hiring has more to do with prolonged uncertainty and declining demand than stay-at-home orders,” Glassdoor said.
Government job openings declined by 9.7 percent, and education fell by 8.9 percent as states faced a huge increase in spending and plunging tax revenues.