COVID Slamming Jobs Market, But CG Companies Still Hiring
As the spread of COVID-19 slams the jobs market, reports that consumer goods companies are hiring serve as a bright spot.
While the first-quarter hiring rate plummeted seven countries in North America, Europe and Asia as a result of the spread of the coronavirus, according to data from LinkedIn and reported by Reuters, CGs like Unilever, Nestle and Clorox are looking to shore up their ranks as they attempt to manage unprecedented consumer demand.
Unilever told Reuters it was hiring for 300 jobs while Nestle said it was hiring for 5,000. Clorox, meanwhile, told NBC it was hiring 250 workers to help it to meet a 500% spike in demand.
Approximately 33.5 million people have filed for unemployment in the United States over the last seven weeks, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. While the totals are staggeringly high, the number of weekly claims is decreasing.
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ADP released its own National Employment Report, finding that private sector employment decreased by over 20.2 million jobs from March through April. The company bases its report on the number of payroll records for employees active on a company’s payroll through the 12th of the month, derived from ADP’s sample of its 460,000 U.S. clients.
“Job losses of this scale are unprecedented,” said aid Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute. “The total number of job losses for the month of April alone was more than double the total jobs lost during the Great Recession.”
The job market in China, however, may also serve an optimistic indicator for the rest of the world as the region emerges from the throes of the health crisis.
Although hiring in China decreased by 50% in mid-February vs. the prior-year period, this gap closed to a mere 3% year-over-year decline in April, Reuters said.
