Coronavirus-hit Seattle is only city to see job growth in May: Glassdoor
Seattle job growth attributed in part to Amazon's recent hiring efforts
A new job market report released by recruiting site Glassdoor found that the city of Seattle was the only area in the United States in May to see job growth during the coronavirus pandemic.
Seattle downtown and Space Needle view. (iStock)
Seattle, which was one of the first cities to have a major coronavirus outbreak, saw an 8 percent month-over-month increase, which Glassdoor attributes in part to recent hiring efforts by Amazon.
Amazon has more than 55,000 employees in the greater Seattle area and, according to the company's career site, there are more than 9,000 available job openings. The company estimates its investments in the area contributed $53 billion to the city's gross domestic product and created more than 240,000 indirect jobs.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 179.17 | -2.11 | -1.16% |
A spokesperson for Amazon declined to comment to FOX Business on Glassdoor's report.
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Despite Seattle's job growth, most major cities continued to see declines in hiring.
Cities hit the hardest include New York City, down 8.4 percent; Boston, down 8.2 percent; Washington. D.C., down 6 percent; Los Angeles, down 5.9 percent; and Chicago, down 5.5 percent, while those with a less severe decline included Houston, down 2.3 percent; Atlanta, down 4.7 percent; Philadelphia, down 4.9 percent; and San Francisco, down 5 percent.
(Glassdoor Economic Research)
Since the beginning of March, Glassdoor found that three in 10 U.S. job openings have disappeared. Seven in 10 employers posted fewer job openings in early March, with 28 percent pausing openings altogether while 14 percent increased their job openings to accommodate the shift in demand created by the pandemic.
As of May 25, total job openings dropped to 4.3 million in May, a nearly 30 percent decline.
US PRIVATE SECTOR LOST 2.7M JOBS IN MAY
The report found that industries that were hardest hit by the pandemic saw a month-over-month increase in hiring as states relax stay-at-home orders and restrictions on nonessential businesses, including private security, up 7.7 percent; consumer services, up 7.1 percent; travel and tourism, up 6.8 percent; restaurants and bars, up 5.7 percent; and beauty and fitness, up 3.1 percent.
Industries with "prolonged uncertainty" due to the pandemic saw the strongest month-over-month decline, including information technology, down 18.2 percent; aerospace and defense, down 16.9 percent; media and publishing, down 14.9 percent; arts and entertainment, down 13 percent; and accounting and legal, down 11.2 percent.
Overall, Glassdoor believes the jobs report for May will show a worsening labor market, though not as dramatic as April. Glassdoor economists expect unemployment to spike into the high teens, if not over 20 percent.
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The news comes as 1.877 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the last week, according to the Labor Department's report on Thursday, bringing the total in the United States since the pandemic began to 42.65 million but continuing a downward trend.
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