Will the Job Market Flourish post Covid-19: an HR Perspective – Part I

Coronavirus:A virus so deadly which has made people wash their hands literally and also from their jobs. Millions of people are facing the wrath of unemployment just because the pandemic demands us to stay home. Under this situation, many of us are wondering will jobs opportunities be waiting for us with open arms when Covid-19 is history?

Mr Parin Chheda, who has 9+ years of work experience in Corporate HR, CxO Hiring and Leadership Consulting and is also one of the mentors at GoCrackIt has a view that the industries heavily impacted due to the lockdown would continue to suffer till the lockdown is not lifted. However, post phased removal of lockdown it could take 6-8 months for industries to begin recovering. However, the question is, does recovery mean hiring will pick up again?

Impact on jobs in various industries

According to Mr Chheda, Healthcare, Insurance, and financial services will experience a surge in their activity, and with a rise in demand, new jobs will be created. For example, there will be a spike in people wanting to buy health cover looking at the present circumstances.

Apart from industries like healthcare and pharma, which are already seeing a demand for manpower, industries providing essential items and fuelling consumption including retail, FMCG will bounce back to their normal levels but slowly and steadily.

With multi-nationals opting to shift their manufacturing base out of China, India stands to benefit from a boost in foreign investments, thus creating job opportunities. Dependence of many economies on Chinese end products as well as intermediates is expected to go down, presenting an opportunity for India to become a preferred export partner for many countries.

In addition to this, since the first wave of lockdown, the e-commerce and digital sector are seeing a surge in the market, and this is expected to reflect in job creation in these sectors. Additionally, organizations are realizing that many jobs can be done ‘from home’ thus saving costs (for example commercial real estate, electricity, etc.) and at the same time providing greater flexibility to employees to operate as per their convenience.

Reorganization of the labour market

Industries like travel and tourism, hospitality, aviation which are heavily impacted by the pandemic will continue to be muted for short to medium term during the recovery period. This is because individuals would continue to be cautious after the lockdown and avoid business as well as leisure travel wherever possible. Naturally, consolidation will happen in these sectors, and it will do best for employees to look at adjacent service sectors for jobs. In this scenario, sector agnostic jobs, especially at junior levels, will have the advantage to shift industries.

Article by – Rajasi Gawande
Linkedin Profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajasi-gawande-9637ba190