Increased interest in Amazon, Netflix during COVID-19 impacts workforce

As the COVID-19 pandemic keeps most Americans at home, there has been an increased interest in and reliance on tech companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Netflix. Northwestern University professor Hatim Rahman is available to comment on the impact this increased reliance on tech companies has on their workforce, and how this pandemic “will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a system, which has long overlooked the long-term well-being of [its] workers.”

Hatim Rahman is a faculty member in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. He investigates how artificial intelligence is impacting the nature of work and employment relationships in organizations and labor markets. He can be contacted by reaching out to Molly Lynch at 773-505-9719 or molly@lynchgrouponline.com.

Quote from Professor Rahman:

“While many companies have shut down during this pandemic, other companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Netflix, are seeing an even greater surge of interest as people spend more time online.

“At the same time, a sizeable chunk of the labor these companies use to function, including collecting and cleaning data that feeds into their AI systems, relies on contingent labor. These people face unprecedented work, health and financial hardships, largely navigating these uncertainties on their own. How these workers fare during this pandemic will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a system which has long overlooked the long-term well-being of such workers.”