Jobs and the Pandemic: What's Back, What's Suffering

• Author: Monica Jackson
• Posted: 2024-07-04

At its worst, 14.8% of Americans were completely out of work during the COVID-19 pandemic. These devastating changes brought economic havoc on the country like that never seen. Thankfully, despite all of the hardship, large swaths of the economy have recovery, returning to their pre-pandemic levels, if not rising well above where they were. However, it goes without saying that unemployment is still very high, with current rates showing that 6.3% of the country still doesn't have a job. So, here's a look at what industries have recovered their jobs, what industries are struggling, and where we can expect job growth going forward.

The Jobs Are Back

According to media reports and official estimates, some industries were barely hit and have since seen major gains. This makes sense: While the pandemic obviously shifted consumer spending patterns, this put an increased burden on some sectors. Examples include:

• Warehousing and logistics: These industries saw major gains during the recession as a result of the increased shift to online shopping. UPS facilities, Amazon, and Big Box stores - like Target and Walmart - have all seen major gains in jobs. This has also boosted job gains in the "online shopping" sector, which has seen a rise of 15,000 jobs.


• Scientific research and development: The rise of a new virus can be great for job creation in the scientific community, as there is an increased emphasis on reducing the spread of COVID-19, developing treatments, and creating vaccines. The industry increased by 4% last year, which equaled 42,000 jobs.


• Delivery services: This includes multiple types of delivery services. On one hand, food delivery, such as Grubhub and DoorDash, all saw major gains. At the same time, larger delivery services - again, including Amazon, but also including FedEx and UPS - also so huge boosts. According to one story, jobs in the delivery sector grew a whopping 17% during the pandemic, and this growth shows no signs of letting up. Furthermore, the definition of delivery expanded, thanks to personal shopping for grocery stores.


• Homebuilding: Home building has shown a 2% job gain during the pandemic. This, in turn, also boosted jobs at building materials and garden center locations, such as Home Depot and Lowes. The nature of homebuilding has also changed signifignatly, with many homes now requiring larger personal offices to make up for the shift to working from home.

The Jobs Are Gone

• Commercial construction: While home construction is doing well, commercial construction is declining, with the industry having lost 21,000 jobs. Tragically, this makes sense, and the industry may never really recover: People have found during the recession that they can work from home, and do so relatively easily. As such, offices may need smaller footprints if they even return to the commercial sector at all. This, in turn, may impact jobs in a variety of other sectors.


• Restaurants: There are few industries that have lost as many jobs as the restaurant, bars & food services sectors. By nature of the way the COVID-19 pandemic spread, this industry bore the brunt of many governmental shutdown orders. At the same time, people became increasingly nervous about eating out in public. While some jobs have come back, many restaurants and bars have closed for good. 2020 ended with 2.5 million restaurant and bar jobs gone, and it seems unlikely that all of those jobs will ever truly come back.


• Tourism: The pandemic, of course, put a huge damper on travel, with many countries completely closing their borders. At the same time, the economic travels forced many families to curtail their travel. According to one survey, 39% of all jobs lost during the pandemic were in the tourism and hospitality sector. That equated to roughly four million jobs. As the pandemic abates, the tourism industry will likely see a major return of many of these jobs, but again, it seems unlikely that this industry will fully recover its job loss in the near future.

At least 8.8 million jobs are gone still, with many of those clearly never coming back. However, like all crises, the job loss will end. The job landscape, however, will likely never be the same.