In our latest episode about the ongoing labor and employment crisis, we sit down with Mischa Fisher—chief economist at Angi, the digital home-services marketplace—to discuss the current state of the skilled trades industry. Fisher's latest research found that the industry, like many others, is experiencing a labor shortage, but it's not due to the "great resignation." Rather, Fisher explains, the stories we tell about the skilled trades do not generally reflect the abundance of opportunity and entrepreneurship that can be found within the industry.
The VOE Podcast is an extension of Voices of Experience, the signature speaker series at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business. Keep tuning in each month for more business insights from Daniels’ alumni voices of experience.
Transcript
Kristal Griffith:
Hello, and welcome to the VOE Podcast.
Jake Jensen:
An extension of Voices of Experience.
Amber D'Angelo:
The signature speaker series at the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business.
Jake Jensen:
We're your hosts.
Kristal Griffith:
Kristal Griffith.
Amber D'Angelo:
Amber D'Angelo.
Jake Jensen:
And I'm Jake Jensen from the Daniels Office of Communications and Marketing. We'll be unpacking topics at the intersection of business and the public good with CEOs and other business leaders from the Daniels community. Let's dive in.
Two of the dominant narratives that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic revolved around the discussion of employment, or lack thereof, and the fact that so many of us were spending large amounts of time at home. Mischa Fisher examined both of these topics well before any of us were quarantined inside our living rooms.
As the chief economist at Angi, the digital home-services marketplace, Mischa evaluates the industry's current climate, from consumer and stakeholder behaviors to prices and market size, then communicates those findings to a broader public audience. His latest research explores how the current labor and employment crisis is manifesting as an opportunity for growth and entrepreneurship in the skilled trades industry. Angi has partnered with Daniels on several projects over the years, and Mischa has been involved with student case competitions at Daniels as well.
Mischa, welcome to the VOE Podcast. We're happy to have you here with us.
Mischa Fisher:
Thanks for having me. This is fun.
Jake Jensen:
Just to start, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your professional journey to how you got to where you are now, and then maybe just a little bit about what you do at Angi?
Mischa Fisher:
Absolutely. I'm the chief economist at Angi, which people may know as Angie's List or particularly for Denver-based listeners, HomeAdvisor, which were the two big brands that we rolled together. We're now Angi, the home for everything home. We are a marketplace for home services in particular that can range from everything like seasonal maintenance upkeep, all the way to remodeling and getting your kitchen replaced.
On a business level, we run the full stack of what you can provide to the marketplace. That's lead generation and providing that demand for pros. It's also marketing and customer reviews, and then it's also pre-booked or pre-priced services, so people can go in and actually book a job to be completed right from their phone, and we take care of the whole thing. That is the company.
As chief economist, my role is thinking specifically about what's going on with the market, consumer behavior, pro behavior, which we'll talk about, prices, the overall size of the market, is it growing, is it shrinking, what's going on with the overall dynamics of what drives it. And then making sure we're communicating those to the public industry, popular press, researchers, academics, that sort of thing.
And then in terms of a professional journey, before this I was the chief economist for the state of Illinois, which is the exact same title,