The Top Cleaning Labor Trends of 2020 and What That Means for Your Cleaning Business Now

We took a look at the building service contractor industry’s 2020 labor trends to see what that might mean for the remainder of 2021.

2020 was truly an exceptional year for the labor market, so it’s no surprise building service contractor hiring rates fluctuated in 2020. By providing essential services by “essential workers,” the cleaning industry quickly became a focal point in the war against a pandemic. As we look forward to the remainder of 2021, and even further into the future, it’s important to take a step back and analyze what trends occurred over the past year, how the market is changing and what strategies can be explored to capitalize on opportunity. What the cleaning labor trends are showing us is a change in hiring.

January started with record low national unemployment followed by nearly record-high unemployment in April. Despite a dramatic unemployment increase, the BSC industry showed remarkable resiliency throughout 2020. While the national unemployment rate soared to 14.8%, the BSC industry only showed a slight 1% dip in existing employee counts. Layoff rates were less than half the national average while quit rates declined month over month. Still, industry and national trends suggest that employee retention is critical and hiring and retention strategies have never been more important, even with the BSC industry’s relative resiliency. Understanding reasons for periodic employee churn, as well as examining generational employee retention could be areas to start improving these strategies.

For the full picture on 2020 and what it means for hiring today, read TEAM Software’s 2020 Building Service Contractor’s Labor Trends report.