In high demand
Among the most coveted jobs this holiday season? Customer call service jobs.
A number of companies have shifted those jobs to allow them to be done from home, making them especially popular during the coronavirus pandemic.
Verizon, the telecommunication giant, has decided that all of its 20,000 customer care service employees would work from home permanently. Radial, an e-commerce company based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, said between 50-70% of its customer care workforce would be working remotely this holiday season.
Some companies are hiring more customer care representatives to handle a surge in online shopping, along with more delivery drivers and warehouse workers.
LiveOps, a virtual call center based that works with fashion companies and department stores, had little trouble finding applicants as it sought to double the number of seasonal workers this year to 3,000. CEO Greg Hanover said the company received 5,000 applicants a week this fall, compared to 1,700 a year ago.
Glassdoor, the online jobs site, said applications for call center representative jobs increased 81% in November compared to the same month last year. Applications for such jobs explicitly advertised as remote soared 244%.
Other jobs that don’t involve much physical interaction with the broader public also saw spikes. Applications for delivery driver jobs, for instance, jumped 88%, according to Glassdoor. Warehouse job applications climbed by 32%.
“Workers who traditionally looked for holiday retail positions at brick-and-mortar stores may now be shifting their job search to roles with less perceived health risk,” Glassdoor senior economist Daniel Zhao said.