No Curfew Whoo Hoo. Not that any of us have anywhere to go and while two is still company 5 is a now a perfectly legal crowd if you reside in Metropolitan Melbourne. Bring on October 19. There will be 127k more employees permitted to work across construction, some manufacturing and logistics as we incrementally crawl toward a normal that will accommodate all COVID related precautions. How we all long for normal but we can smell that finish line now.
With almost 1 million Australians unemployed and the under-employed rate sitting at 11.2% (ABS Labour force Australia August 2020), there is a lot of concern with regard to the job market. I am routinely asked questions about what is happening in the market right now and any predictions that I care to make with regard to a short to medium term forecast.
Hiring has slowed. Applications and competition for roles has increased.
Temp and contract will lead the charge out of this economic malaise, perm will be much slower to return to pre-COVID levels. The Gig economy according to ETBrandEquity, could see an uptick with a shift from a familiar 9 to 5 tenure to on-demand, freelance and task- based economy. Underemployment may well be very real in industry sectors that cannot return to full capacity. Multiple jobs for many may be an essential reality.
BUT there are some pockets of encouraging activity as our market morphs to accommodate our new way forward. Article after article spruiks anything in cyber security, big data, AI, robotics, virtual and augmented reality and any cloud-based internet roles and related skills will be sought after. See Daily Telegraph Here .
Xaas is just about anything as a service. X being any sort of function that you almost rent rather than buy. We have all heard of Saas (Software as a Service), but the list goes on:
- IAAS – Infrastructure as a service;
- Paas – Platform as a service;
- Daas – Database as a service;
- Caas – Communications as a service,
- Raas Recruitment as a service so on and so forth.
My point being that any cloud-based technology has boomed, as business has had to move super quickly to enable a remote work force. Therefore new IT roles and skills will be in demand. See Link . Everything from security and governance, has to be rethought, digital content development, videos and other creative ways to achieve customer cut through, attention and engagement will be sought after talent for our new virtual professional lives. Brand Equity.com adds that any data related specialist roles will also be in demand; data engineers and analysts. COVID has escalated the uptake of AI to replace more repetitive/labour intensive tasks in an effort to streamline, save costs and time.
“Greater demand for Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain & Cybersecurity Skills. Even Gaming. As with data, all of these skills will have multiple takers. There is really no merit in elaborating on these opportunities, which are self-evident in an environment where digital services are going to grow exponentially. Jobs in these domains will be plentiful, and will pay well. Expect serious demand-supply gap and many edtech players rushing in to make a quick buck by providing quick-fix learning solutions.”
Jobs requiring higher EI, that is “Jobs in customer care, logistics, tracking, counselling, consumer research, qualitative analysis and such, will open up for those who can demonstrate a higher than normal EI.”
Service-at-home jobs have already emerged ie cook/finish at home restaurant delivered meals which can be extended to a range of services including hairdressers, manicurists, on demand medical consulting etc.
According to ABC Alison Xiao’s blog “researchers believe healthcare and social assistance is an industry likely to emerge as stable after coronavirus and its economic impacts subside.” See Link.
The future may well be different to what we knew pre-COVD but there are some bright spots on the horizon.
Current Jobs:
- Employee Relations Manager
- Service and Training Specialist X2
- General Temp Registration
- Marketing Strategist
- Clinical Documentation Developer
