We’re living in unprecedented times of global shutdown. Many jobs have been made redundant or permanently lost due to lack of revenue-generating activities. The unemployment globally is at around 190 million and the US witnessed over 26.4 million unemployment claims filed. Unemployment in Australia and New Zealand reached 11%, the highest peak in 30 years.
While the situation is dire and the economic welfare is at an unrivalled risk, some industries are experiencing a shortage of skills or positions. These industries such as retail food supply chains, health sector, and e-Commerce are experiencing growth and are able to make bigger contributions to GDP than before.
We need these skills to be met so that these industries can speed up both physical and economic recoveries. Here are the skills the world desperately needs.
1. Nurses
With additional patients flooding into the hospitals as well as other patients whose conditions have gotten worse from lack of proper care during the pandemic, the world is experiencing one of the worst nursing shortages. Nursing shortage is nothing new in Australia. In 2019, NSW was only able to fill 49% of the nursing vacancies.
However, with the pandemic, these shortages have a multiplier impact on saving lives. This is why the Australian government is asking inactive registered nurses to undertake education and re-enter the field. It’s all hands on deck at this time. To combat this, the government also lifted the restrictions on over 20,000 visa-holding nursing students who were not allowed to work over 40 hours per fortnight. They will now be able to support more complex tasks and work longer hours.
Not only do we need more frontline workers on the floor, but we also need better-trained nurses to handle increasingly challenging public health issues. Those holding credentials such as master’s in advanced nursing are in high demand and are well-compensated as well. Healthcare is an industry with high job security due to the required specialisation and it is also vital to the well-being of the global community. Meeting this need for the nursing shortage is a matter of life and death.
2. Warehouse Managers
While most retail workers are negatively affected, the e-commerce industry is booming and hiring at scale. Amazon announced 100,000 jobs for managing its many warehouses as demand spikes from cooped up people binge shopping online. 7-eleven is hiring 20,000 jobs to meet its demand at its stores around the world. With certain deliveries from outside the country being restricted, the need to build up local warehouse space and manage the high inflow and outflow of inventories has spiked.
The upsurge also requires warehouses to have managers who can keep the operations tight and minimise leakage. Rushed warehouse setup could result in inefficiencies that companies cannot afford right now. Thus, whether you are operating the forklifts or managing those who do, there’s a need for you if you are good at organising and creating an assembly. Warehouse management experience can also translate into store management skills, which you can apply to climb up the retail management ladder post-COVID-19
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3. Construction Project Managers
As governments think about easing social distancing restrictions, one of the first industries in many countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom is the construction industry. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on 10 May that those whose jobs do not allow them to work from home, such as in construction, may return to work.
Many will still have to follow additional safety measures in place, which could become the new norm of the world which may live in fear of the second wave of COVID-19. These new parameters require project plans to be revised and employees to be trained. Construction project managers are now in demand to help the industry recover faster without compromising the safety restrictions, which are unlikely to go away any time soon.
Unemployment claims are being filed at an unparalleled rate all over the world. Despite the job market being severely threatened by Covid-19, there are certain skills that are in serious shortage as we mentioned above. You may want to consider upskilling yourselves in one of these areas to stay employed.