How has the pandemic affected the job market?

The wake of COVID-19 will leave long-lasting damage, and the job market will be suffering a gigantic and unrelenting shock for some time. Due to Coronavirus, we jumped from the best labor market to the worst in the last 60 years. Millions of jobs lost during the pandemic will never come back. New positions in different sectors will likely replace some of them. From some parts of the economy to the other, there will be gigantic provisions.

This is the biggest thing since the Great Depression. It’s absolutely enormous and incredibly fast.

~Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom

What’s  the data look like?

Research firm Gartner, Inc. has published its report that even as new job openings are on the rise, they are still down 30%  compared with February of 2020. There are still the sectors that are present at which the economy is hiring, and the pandemic might alter the job market. The online market sectors like Amazon, Walmart, and instacart have employed millions of people grocery and delivery workers at different postings.  A large number of  remote work occurs in the high tech sector, so an increase in this sector is noticeable. The worst-off sectors which will most likely see the most difficult recoveries, include person-to-person service related positions like in Uber drivers, flight attendant and food servers. Interestingly, the likes of UberEats, Doordash, Postmates and kitchen staff seem to be holding their own. 

Age and other vulnerabilities

According to a 2017 survey, the average age of veterans was 58, and 91% of veterans were male. Veterans in that survey faced high amounts of Asthma and other respiratory diseases. Most likely as a consequence of duty in areas of the world like Iraq and Afghanistan.  There, they were exposed to dust storms, oil fires, and burn pits. The two key factors for the risk of COVID-19 impermanence are age and respiratory illness. 

The COVID-19 pandemic continue represents a significant challenge across the world in the labor market. However, there is no doubt that the scale of the pandemic impact and how long lasting it will be is unpredictable. The career opportunities for veterans can be opened up by developing soft skills and other individual marketability based improvements. These skills may prove helpful if you are looking for a job during COVID-19 pandemic.

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