Study reveals retail hiring impact amid coronavirus

Yahoo Finance’s Sibile Marcellus joins Seana Smith to break down a new study from LinkedIn revealing how the coronavirus is impacting hiring in the retail industry.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Now, while many businesses are shedding jobs, some essential businesses can't seem to hire fast enough. And for more on that, I want to bring in Sibile Marcellus. And, Sibile, I know you're looking into a new report on this by LinkedIn. And they're specifically talking about the essential businesses in the retail sector.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: That's right, Seana. So orders for people to stay at home has transformed the retail landscape and led to a rise in essential retail. So as you mentioned there, over the past five weeks, more than 26 million Americans have lost their jobs. Well, what LinkedIn has found is that there's been a skyrocketing 88% spike in job applications for essential jobs-- and those include food delivery services, pharmacies, and also warehouse workers and grocers.

So what we're seeing is that many people who were laid off who were hairdressers or, for example, restaurant workers have been flocking to these types of jobs. And the types of job openings that have been increasing and surging are store clerks, stockers, delivery, and warehouse retail workers. But the spike in applications has been different in different geographies.

So for example, in metro areas such as Phoenix and Tennessee, there's been a more than 100% spike in those types of applications for those essential types of retail jobs. But in places like New York and Detroit, that spike has been less than 50%. So what that shows, Seana, is that there's still a lot of people living in areas that have been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 epidemic-- pandemic-- are basically still hesitant to get a job where they'll still have to interact with a lot of other people.

SEANA SMITH: All right, Sibile, thanks so much for breaking down that report for us.