Delivery industry sees biggest monthly job losses in more than 20 years
10 May 2021
Data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; Chart: Axios Visuals
The pandemic's biggest job winner is losing steam.
Driving the news: People who deliver packages to businesses and homes — classified as "couriers and messengers" by the Labor Department — saw the industry's biggest monthly job losses in more than 20 years in April.
Why it matters: Few industries were as supercharged as delivery over the past year. If the job drop-off lasts, it could signal a slowdown after the sector added scores of workers through the pandemic-fueled boom.
What they're saying: "Employers in the industry might be thinking that demand for delivery services won't be as strong post-pandemic as they originally thought," says Indeed Hiring Lab's Nick Bunker.
- "[T]hese services may be in demand, but not as much as was thought a few months ago."
Catch up quick: The pandemic accelerated a delivery obsession that was underway. It was already the fastest-growing job sector in the country.
- Couriers and messengers continued to add workers at an eye-popping pace, even as jobs in most other sectors dried up when shutdowns hit.
The intrigue: Even with April's disappointing employment report, no other industry is faring as well — at least when it comes to jobs.
- Courier and messenger employment is 14.3% higher now than before the pandemic hit.
- The distant second is warehousing and storage (another e-commerce winner), where employment is 5.9% higher than February 2020, per data from Brean Capital.
What to watch: Whether last month's jobs decline was a blip.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.