ECI Release Briefing: Indexed Business Costs to May 2022

Transactions on the Instawork platform track the pay of hourly workers and the total cost of their shifts to local businesses. This briefing includes indexed cost trends for various roles in regions across the United States. Because the Instawork platform is part of a competitive labor market for hourly work, the trends shown here for total business costs are expected to follow the costs of other sources of staffing over time. Data used in this briefing may include data on future shifts that have been booked on the Instawork platform but have not yet taken place.

By and large, business costs have been rising slightly in hospitality – except for runners – and have been stable in other roles over the past several months. In May 2022, we expect stable or falling business costs across almost all roles, with the exception of a small increase for intermediate warehouse associates.

Here are the trends in business costs for 14 roles transacted on the Instawork platform, including data for shifts in May 2022 that have already been booked:

28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for bartender
28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for busser
28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for concession or stand worker
28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for counter staff or cashier
28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for custodial
28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for dishwasher
28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for event server
28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for event setup and takedown
28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for general labor
28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for line cook
28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for prep cook
28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for runner
28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for warehouse associate - entry level
28 Apr 2022 business cost trend for warehouse associate - intermediate

We will continue to track these changes in business costs in the quarters to come. We welcome your suggestions for additions to this briefing.

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