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.
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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.
Increases in hourly pay continued to dominate on the Instawork platform in May and are expected to do so in June as well. This would be the fifth straight month with a preponderance of businesses raising pay:
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 had the toughest time since January finding full-time jobs, and part-time jobs were also harder to find in May. Finding work was more difficult across every kind of job, suggesting a loosening labor market for hourly workers:
Finding 41-50 hours of work per week was also more difficult than in April, though finding regular full-time hours was slightly easier:
As usual, many more Pros worked 30 hours or fewer than wanted to. This gap had been shrinking since January but has started to open up again.
In April we also asked Pros about their overall financial situation. Almost half said they were just making ends meet, and roughly another quarter said they were falling deeper into debt. The rest were more comfortable:
These data emphasize the precarious financial position of hourly workers and the importance of a strong labor market to their financial security.
The gender balance on the Instawork platfrorm shifted slightly toward women in May, and the share of Pros identifying as White dropped for the third straight month:
Since a weakening labor market for permanent positions will often hit members of racial and ethnic minorities first, the growing share of these minorities in Instawork's labor supply may be one result of a cooling labor market.
After two months of increases in hourly pay dominating among hospitality businesses on the Instawork platform, the trend may reverse in June:
The streak of increases in hourly pay for several front-of-house roles looks likely to end in June as well, with possible declines for bartenders and bussers:
Pay for line cooks is headed downward in June, but other back-of-house roles are steady:
Hourly pay for building and grounds cleaning did not continue its upward streak in May, but it is tracking toward a huge turnaround in June. As a reminder, this is one of the most volatile industry groups we track. Custodial pay in particular looks likely to rise for the fourth month in a row:
