Mid-March, three high-profile hotel chains in Utah indicated room bookings were extremely low with 20 to 25% occupancy compared to more than 100% full during that same week in 2019. Simultaneously, all events in the state for the month were canceled during the final weeks.
More than 30 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits over six weeks, highlighting how quickly record high employment can become record-setting unemployment. The situation provides a lesson on how the gig economy can play an important role in the nation’s economic recovery and the ability for companies to surgically respond to the quickly shifting demands for workers.
The pandemic has been a challenge for Bacon.work, a company that’s been called the “Uber” of hourly jobs lets employers select, screen and hire qualified workers in moments. Likewise, the free app allows workers to find and select hourly shifts for temporary employment.
Dozens of key Bacon clients in the catering and events industry found themselves in a difficult situation. About one-third of the shifts posted on Bacon in the final quarter of 2019 were catering and events jobs. Since the COVID-19 not a single shift in has been posted on the platform by those companies.
While hospitality, travel, transportation, restaurants and retail have been hit most heavily, some businesses are facing the opposite problem – the sudden surge in need for services such as online retail fulfillment and deliveries, online and virtual meetings, education and entertainment services, internet security, bandwidth and infrastructure for remote workers. Plus, food, medicines, sanitation and medical supplies are needed to support home-based activities, quarantined populace, and workers and patients in medical facilities who now risk overwhelm.
The Immediate Needs and Resources
Local and federal government and its divisions are working quickly and in a better state of unity than before in providing relief in the form of economic rescue packages from the SBA, disaster support through divisions such as FEMA and Veterans Affairs and correlation with organizations such as the Red Cross.
Law enforcement is aiding in the execution of orders to slow and prevent additional infections. Communities are rising to help by helping to gather and distribute needed supplies to recipients.
In many cases businesses are rising to the occasion in admirable ways, despite their own fear and pressure, to provide resources such as free flights for medical workers, free shipping for emergency medical supplies, and in some cases the willingness of organization owners to forego their own salaries in their efforts to prevent the loss of income or sick leave pay for employees. Many of these efforts rise beyond admirable to be heroic.
The Next Needs
As this occurs, the next wave of needs are emerging quickly. Emergency support checks from the government provide some relief to the masses of unemployed workers. Unemployment pay is higher and will extend for a longer period in this situation that is unlike any that America or the world has previously endured.
However, these means of support will run out far too quickly for legions of workers who remain unemployed as the world adapts to the “new normal.” While we will ultimately return to many of the ways of life we knew previously, no one doubts that the business and lifestyle landscape will evolve quickly as new needs emerge. These needs will include new kinds of work and the emphasis on new kinds of products and service. This change will create jobs and hourly work needs that will ebb and flow quickly and dramatically for a long time to come.
We have been through economic downturns before and these struggling industries can recover quickly. For example, after the collapse of the housing market in 2008, the U.S. had two more years of decrease and another four years to recover. We found businesses tend to start with temporary or freelance workers first as they rebuild after a recession.
A New Answer – Rapid and Skillful Matching of Hourly Workers with Available Work
Bacon, a Utah-based company emerging from Hall Labs, in one of the nation’s top three opportunity zones, is providing an answer. Headed by Hunter Sebresos, a serial entrepreneur and U.S. Marines veteran, Bacon established itself in 2018 as a unique model for shaping the gig economy in Utah and Texas.
Companies like Uber and DoorDash offer jobs that provide a consumer to consumer experience. Bacon has a platform for workers to get real-life experiences with employers. This approach gives business executives and shift workers a chance to decide whether or not the employment situation should become more permanent.
Bacon is seeing firsthand how needs are moving from hotels and catering to filling shifts for warehouse and manufacturing companies. Several manufacturers changed production toward in-demand items such as face masks and are turning to Bacon to hire gig workers to cope with the increased demand for these products. Warehouses need staff to help with packing and many companies are needing delivery drivers for the first time.
Gig workers are the right solution for this time. Learning how to use a gig workforce properly will be a key advantage for companies looking to rebuild or maintain productivity while keeping payroll costs low. However, the gig economy works best when it isn’t simply providing a paycheck but when it is also providing a way for workers to improve, train, and grow toward even better opportunities.
