Daniel Altman, Instawork Chief Economist
Recent Posts
What is the minimum wage gap in your area?
Key takeaways
- Minimum wages bear little relationship to the cost of living in metro areas across the United States.
- Gaps between pay and the cost of living are especially wide for working adults with children.
- Hourly pay determined in the labor market for flexible work is more closely related to the cost of living.
Monthly Labor Market Report - November 2022
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.
Tampa's jobs boom is bucking the trend
The Tampa Bay area suffered a sharp decline in employment at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, but its jobless rate is now among the nation's lowest. Unusually, the fastest-growing sector in the past year has been leisure and hospitality. Even more unusual, employment in the sector now exceeds its pre-pandemic level. What's going on?
Switching jobs can raise pay in flexible work, too
Key takeaways
- Hourly pay for flexible workers who have been active on the Instawork platform changed by less than the national average
- Workers who switched roles and/or industries attained higher hourly pay rates
- Increases were especially high for workers switching into industries with labor shortages
Long commutes or internal migration for flexible workers?
Key takeaways
- Flexible workers are mobile, and a significant share of them cross state lines to work
- Major metropolitan areas in the Northeast have started to recoup flexible workers
- Rising pay against a backdrop of high inflation may be motivating the trend
Monthly Labor Market Report - October 2022
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.
Has the music stopped in Nashville's job market?
The Nashville metropolitan area currently has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Job growth is strong at both ends of the value chain, in raw materials and professional industries. Logistics and related trades have also been expanding. But the sector that Nashville has relied on for decades to make its name – leisure and hospitality – may be starting to fade from the limelight.
These are the hottest shifts for flexible work during the holidays
Key takeaways
- Shifts in customer-facing hospitality roles filled up exceptionally quickly during the holiday season last year
- Hourly pay rates actually fell for many of the same roles, again suggesting they were easy to fill
- Shifts in other roles were harder to fill during the holidays, and pay rates rose for many of them
How Kansas City's labor market took a surprising turn
The Kansas City metropolitan area has been one of the strongest labor markets in the country for more than a decade. So it was puzzling when the unemployment rate started to rise in early 2021 while the nation as a whole saw joblessness fall. What happened next was the sort of experiment economists dream about.
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