This article will go over three high demand jobs during quarantine. Even though the world is on lockdown, that doesn’t mean every job is gone. There are even some companies that have experienced an increase in demand for their services and are looking to hire more workers – while offering good wages, during the pandemic.
Shout out to Jordan Smeltzer and Katie Barnes for giving me this idea to write about!
We’ll rate each of these job opportunities based on 4 factors:
- How much you get paid
- How flexible the hours are
- How sanitary the conditions are
- How complex the task is
Fair warning: All these jobs require a vehicle.
Let’s check out our top three high demand jobs during quarantine:
Shipt Shopper or Instacart Shopper
Pay: 5/5
Flexible Hours: 4/5
Sanitation: 2/5
Complexity: 4/5
Now that everybody wants/needs to stay home all the time, there has never been a bigger demand for personal shoppers.
Shipt and Instacart are companies that allow consumers to order all their groceries and other household items through an app. There’s plenty of stores to choose from including:
- Costco
- Target
- Meijer
- CVS
As a Shipt/Instacart Shopper your job would be to review a grocery order, go to the store and pick everything up, and then delivery it to the customer’s house. It’s a relatively simple job, but due to the market demand, it pays very well!
Most Shipt/Instacart Shoppers report making $15-25/hour with some shoppers hustling to a point where they’re making $230/day and working every single day of the week. Now that’s a great way to make money during quarantine!
The hours you work are determined by grocery store hours. Since grocery stores have particularly good hours, that means your workday has great flexibility.
From a sanitation aspect, being a Shipt or Instacart Shopper is probably the worst out of the three high demand jobs during quarantine. You need to walk into a packed grocery store and expose yourself to dozens of people in an enclosed environment.
The complexity of this job is a little more difficult than the other two jobs since you must know what you’re looking for. You need to be able to go into the produce aisle and have an idea what parsley and cilantro are.
Job Requirements:
- At least 18 years old
- Consistent access to a vehicle (1997 or newer)
- Consistent access to, and the ability to effectively use a recent smartphone (iPhone 5 / Android 4.4 or newer)
- Ability to lift 40-50 lbs with or without accommodation
If you’d like to learn more about becoming a Shipt Shopper then follow this link: https://www.shipt.com/be-a-shopper/
If you’d like to learn more about becoming a Instacart Shopper then follow this link: https://shoppers.instacart.com/role/full-service
Here’s a note from Shipt regarding their demand during quarantine:
The online grocery industry as a whole is facing an enormous increase in awareness and demand. In fact, over the last 8 weeks, we’ve seen increases in demand that we didn’t anticipate for a number of years.
Uber Driver or Lyft Driver
Pay: 2/5
Flexible Hours: 5/5
Sanitation: 3/5
Complexity: 2/5
Almost everything is shut down, but everyone still needs a way to get to the places that are still open. That’s why ride sharing services haven’t been suspended.
What are Uber and Lyft? These are the two companies that took down the taxi industry. Instead of calling a taxi company and having one of their fleet pick you up, you now open up either your Uber or Lyft app, and click a button that says “Pick Me Up” (more or less). The app has GPS in it, so the driver knows where you are.
The best part about these companies is that they don’t require fleets of vehicles to be maintained. Any person with a newer four-door car and a valid driver’s license can sign up to be a driver.
Just like being a Shipt Shopper, being an Uber/Lyft Driver is in high demand right now.
On top of that, Uber has committed to help lessen the impact of the coronavirus by implementing a plan that will:
- Provide free transportation for frontline healthcare workers, helping them get to and from patients’ homes, as well as between healthcare facilities.
- Provide free meals on Uber Eats to first responders and healthcare workers in the U.S. and Canada, in coordination with local, state, and provincial governments.
- Waive the Delivery Fee for the more than 100,000 independent restaurants across the U.S. and Canada on Uber Eats.
In order to successfully pull off this strategy, they are going to need a lot of drivers.
The average pay rates for Uber/Lyft Drivers is somewhere between $15-20/hour. Not bad for driving around your car all day listening to your newest podcast.
As far as flexibility, this is hands down the best out of the three high demand jobs during quarantine. You can literally drive 24/7.
The likelihood of contracting a virus in your car is less than walking into a grocery store, but you’re still in an enclosed environment with another individual and that poses some risk.
The difficulty of this job would be a lot harder if you had to use a map, but luckily you don’t. The Uber and Lyft apps have built in GPS, so you just drive wherever it tells you to.
Job Requirements:
- Meet the minimum age to drive in your city
- Have at least one year of licensed driving experience in the U.S. (three years if you are under age 23)
- Have a valid U.S. driver’s license
- Use an eligible 4-door vehicle (usually 2004 or newer)
If you’d like to learn more about becoming an Uber Driver then follow this link: https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/requirements/
If you’d like to learn more about becoming a Lyft Driver then follow this link: https://www.lyft.com/drive-with-lyft
DoorDash Driver or Grubhub Driver
Pay: 5/5
Flexible Hours: 3/5
Sanitation: 4/5
Complexity: 3/5
Since this whole thing started, I’ve lost count at the number of times my fiancé and I have ordered through DoorDash/Grubhub. These companies have done what we all dreamed about. Brought delivery services to restaurants that don’t have a delivery service.
You can now order McDonalds and Burger King and get it delivered to your front door without leaving your couch. How’s that for the American Dream?
DoorDash and Grubhub not only work with large fast food companies, but they also partnered up with a lot of local restaurants in your area. And these aren’t some big companies that only exist in large metropolitan areas. I live in a little city in Northern Michigan (Traverse City), and a large percentage of our restaurants now partner with both DoorDash and Grubhub.
DoorDash advertises that you will earn between $15-$25 an hour. It should be noted though, that some people have claimed that they make $10/delivery and can do 3 deliveries an hour making their hurly as high as $30/hour.
Through a little bit of research, I found that Grubhub Drivers make a little less, coming in around $10-20/hour.
Being a food delivery driver means that your hours are pretty much limited to the lunch and dinner rushes, making the hours not very flexible.
Due to contactless delivery that is now the standard (you drop the delivery off at the front door and knock instead of handing people the food directly), this is a most sanitary out of the high demand jobs during quarantine. The only time you expose yourself to becoming sick is when you’re picking up the food from the restaurant.
Being a delivery driver back in the day when there was no GPS was a little more difficult, especially if you didn’t know the city very well. But that complexity has been eliminated thanks to the powerful apps developed by DoorDash and Grubhub that include GPS for the delivery drivers.
Job Requirements:
- At least 18 years old
- Any car, scooter, or bicycle (in select cities)
- Have a valid US driver’s license
If you’d like to learn more about becoming an DoorDash Driver then follow this link: https://www.doordash.com/dasher/signup/?utm_source=dx_signup_midtile_cx_home
If you’d like to learn more about becoming an Grubhub Driver then follow this link: https://driver.grubhub.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwp-X0BRAFEiwAheRuiyK6uzjKDcPePQgSvYK-B8–tE3U_IAm-RK7jvgLoKAALErQb5F1shoC8UsQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
While our economy is currently in a contraction phrase due to the coronavirus, that doesn’t mean that all jobs are gone. These companies have been experiencing increased demand for their services and they’re willing to pay people like you to help them out! I hope you found this article helpful!
If for some reason you want to read some Accounting and Finance Jokes then be sure to check out my page!
