Every day, the Instawork platform handles thousands of transactions involving businesses and hourly professionals, generating a huge amount of data on hourly pay as well as other aspects of the labor market. This report summarizes some of the major trends in demographics, roles, and worker constraints in regions across the United States.
To receive future economic insights from the Instawork Economic Research Division, please subscribe by visiting: https://hubs.li/Q012kZ--0
The data are also compiled into the Instawork Pay Signal Index (PSI) and indexed trends in hourly pay. Because businesses can book shifts in advance on the Instawork platform, the metrics include forward-looking data for the current month as well. Please refer to the appendix for explanations of the methods behind each metric.
Starting this month, we are presenting reorganized, rebalanced, and re-indexed statistics with July 2022 as their base, for greater ease of use.
The labor market as a whole looked hotter in February, with increases in pay predominating and other indicators also showing signs of strength. In March we expect these factors to moderate slightly:
Our in-app surveys track Pros' labor market situations on a monthly basis. For details on methods and questionnaires, please see the Methodological Appendix below.
Pros' ease of finding full-time and part-time jobs was relatively unchanged in March, but they had a much harder time finding app-based or temporary work outside of the Instawork platform:
Yet for the second straight month, Pros who wanted to work essentially full-time hours (31 to 50 hours) had an easier time. Those who wanted more hours struggled:
This nascent trend may reflect the decreasing churn in the labor market as a whole, with more workers holding onto permanent positions while companies are less eager to hire and fire.
In March we also asked Pros how they found out about jobs. Fewer than 1 in 5 said they heard about jobs from recruiters and staffing businesses, suggesting that Pros do indeed represent a vast labor force for flexible work that goes largely untapped by traditional temp agencies:
Fewer than 2 in 5 used the biggest job sites online, another big contrast with workers who do "standing" rather than "sitting" jobs. These workers still have access to information about flexible work including longer-term and temp-to-hire roles via online platforms like Instawork, which they use at double the rate (at least for this rather special sample).
In March more men worked shifts on the Instawork platform, and the share of Pros who identified as Black/African-American rose for the first time in four months:
This change has corresponded to a surge in sign-ups among Spanish speakers, who accounted for 8% of new Pros in February, the highest figure since May 2018.
More businesses than expected ended up raising hourly pay for hospitality shifts in March, but advance bookings suggest a sharper drop in April. Leading the way will be bartenders and line cooks, for whom pay is expected to fall after peaking in March:
Hourly pay rates for bartenders dropped in March as expected and may fall further in April, while pay for other front-of-house rolls will be relatively constant:
After a small uptick in hourly pay for lines cooks, pay for back-of-house roles is again expected to be stable or slightly lower next month:
