The blue-collar American workforce is full of signs of a strengthened labor market.
A home builder in the Orlando, Florida area is looking to add four construction workers to a team of six people in full demand for housing during the pandemic. In Atlanta, a forklift driver pays overtime because the warehouse he employs is very busy distributing packages. A Chicago-based truck trailer manufacturer is increasingly organizing job fairs and raising wages by up to 7% as hiring increases at its nine production plants.
Nationally, employment in residential construction, package delivery and storage now exceeds pre-pandemic levels. Manufacturers have again added jobs after reducing payrolls last spring, although employment continues to fall by about 5% from February 2020, according to data from the Department of Labor. Job vacancies in many blue-collar occupations exceeded pre-virus levels last summer and remain significantly high, according to data from the online job Indeed.
The strength of housing and e-commerce during the pandemic has helped boost hiring in blue-collar occupations, which were hard hit by previous recessions. Many economists and companies expect blue-collar jobs to continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace, after containing the coronavirus. They predict the key factors driving the business demand for blue-collar workers — a quick collection of online orders and a strong real estate market.
“Worker demand will not go down,” said David Berson, chief economist at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. “We will still need good storage. Undefined We will continue to see a strong strength in demand in the construction area, especially housing.”