The world of work has been forever changed by COVID, ridged positions have become more flexible and employees have had to adapt to new situations. Take First Officer Peter Login, who as a British Airways pilot swapped his cockpit of the 747 to deliver essential food to people during the lockdown.
Coronavirus has cost and created working positions throughout the country and the shift is being felt in the recruitment industry. Data collected by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation shows record falls in recruitment activity however, there is another side, a side that shows permanent and temporary jobs rising back to former glories. Personnel Today offers us a live graph that shows the number of positions rising to a pre-coronavirus state, and whilst we are not there yet it doesn’t seem to be slowing.
So, it seems we are heading for a new scenario, one where there are more positions than workers to fill them, one where companies are working to attract new talent rather than candidates bombarding them with CVs. In this new world, it’s the candidate that says, “what can you do for me?” This is being seen across high-level management positions across a wide section of industries, but there is another side to this coin.
In the UK those most at risk from a permanent Covid related job loss are those in occupations earning less than £10 per hour. A Manchester restaurant advertised a receptionist job and managers were shocked to received 963 applications in a single day. The crisis has made workers adapt to new jobs and sometimes completely new industries! A lot of this was off-set by the furlough scheme which kept those at-risk jobs available for workers.
The Office for National Statistics has been monitoring this change and we will be continually checking in and reporting back. They report that between January and June 6.1% of workers changed occupation, as opposed to the 5.7% in the same period last year. This may not seem like a big increase but take into account that this was a period of time supported by the furlough scheme. With that support ending are we likely to see more Peter Login’s? Not just changing roles but changing industry to adapt to the changing world.
Accord will continue to monitor new statistics and information from the world of recruitment, but already we are seeing a theme. To stay afloat businesses and candidates alike need to be flexible, roles are changing and the UK needs workers.
Accord