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Knowing the current employment landscape is an important first step when launching a job search. Over the last few months, the job market has changed in a fast and monumental way. Even for employment professionals, it’s difficult to keep up.
We all know that millions of jobs have been lost in only two months, but the good news is that many employers are hiring. Three categories have emerged:
1. Jobs that have always existed, but are now considered “essential” and there is a subsequent surge in demand. For example, grocery store workers, warehouse workers, delivery drivers, allied health, and so forth.
2. Jobs that have always existed, but the roles have realigned to meet current demands. For example, there have always been lab technicians, but now many have been refocused to handle Covid-19 testing, anti-body testing, and vaccine trials. And many more are needed.
3. Jobs that didn’t exist before, but will now become a semi-permanent part of our labor market, such as Contact Tracers.
LinkedIn publishes a running list of companies that are surge hiring due to Covid-19, called “Here’s Who’s Hiring Right Now”. If you are searching for any type of work, you may wish to check this list daily. The companies listed vary, but some are specific companies that found themselves positioned to succeed because of Covid-19. For example, grocery store workers are considered “essential,” but Instacart workers are part of the “gig-economy” and its hiring surge is directly related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Here are industries that may continue to grow because of the nature of what they are and the services provided, as opposed to simply a short-term increase in demand.
Healthcare - The world needs doctors and nurses. It also needs EMTs, researchers, lab clinicians, ER specialists, and the list goes on and on. No other event in our history has shined a light so bright on our medical community, and our emergency response capabilities will be examined, improved, and institutionalized.
Manufacturers of Hand Sanitizers, Disinfectants, & Facemasks – supply chain issues have hampered a ramp up in these products and some surges are temporary (for example, distilleries are cranking out hand sanitizer and giving it away to hospitals). But once manufacturing stabilizes there will be a sustained surge in these types of products in both consumer and B2B sectors. That can already be seen with facemasks. A month ago, getting any type of mask was all but impossible, but now face coverings are mass produced. The list of items is evolving.
Video Conferencing Service Providers – if you haven’t been on a Zoom call yet, then you are not living during this pandemic. The domino effect has been immediate. Google is already trying to catch up to Zoom. Before, Google’s video conferencing service was a paid Premium feature nobody wanted and Covid-19 left Google holding Zoom’s bag. Now Google is offering the service for free. And what about Skype? And House Party? And Facetime? Let the video conferencing wars begin! Overall, video conferencing looks to potentially be a boom that doesn’t end. Working from home (and schooling from home) looks like it might be more prevalent than before even after the pandemic subsides. Tech providers like these need programmers, support professionals, marketers, and salespeople.
Education – it’s a brave new world. From kindergarten to graduate school, our educational institutions are transforming. Already there appears to be a surge in available education jobs (see the LinkedIn list) as schools manage the reality of online education and the college campus experience must be reimagined.
Architecture/Design – Talk is emerging that once everyone accepts the fact that then new normal is not going to be the way it use to be, and that deep transformational changes will have to occur before everyone feels safe (with or without a vaccine or medicinal), sweeping investments will be made in redesigning the public and private spaces we all take for granted to account for public health. These include offices, residences, restaurants, and bars. Perhaps even airplanes.
Pandemic Professions
One thing is certain. Nothing will get back to any semblance of normal, including the labor market, until we can contain the health care crisis in a way that doesn’t put our collective health at risk. To that end, there is a new surge industry that is on the cusp of an epic surge in hiring. Since there is no official name to this category, we’ll call them “Pandemic Professions.”
Covid-19 Testers – Testing, testing, testing! We hear that mantra everywhere. Think of the supply chain, and the chain of people required to develop, manufacture, and distribute Covid-19 tests. That’s Chain One. Chain Two is the Testers, who administer the tests and testing sites. Chain Three is the lab that completes the test and provides the results. All three stages of Covid-19 testing need personnel.
The Covid-19 testing community also needs volunteers. Lots of them. For example, in Los Angeles county, the largest in the nation, the Los Angeles Fire Department was conducting tests until CORE, a non-profit started by actor Sean Penn after Haiti’s last major earthquake, offered to do them so that first responders were freed up to focus on what they do best. The hand-off was so successful that CORE has now expanded its testing to New Orleans, Atlanta, Detroit, and North Carolina, with additional locations opening up soon. CORE, along with other non-profits (like José Andrés World Central Kitchen) will need volunteers and new hires for at least the next year.
While volunteering for Covid-19 related causes may not address immediate financial needs, it does 1) get you out of the house, 2) expand your potential network to find paid work, 3) teaches you a new skill (always be training!), and, most importantly, will help your friends and neighbors in a critical way. If you’re comfortable with the risk, it may be worthwhile.
Contact Tracers – Somebody tests positive for Covid-19. Now what? This is the moment when a Contact Tracer is brought in to determine who the infected individual has been in contact with while they were contagious, track them down, and have them self-quarantine to contain the spread before it becomes an outbreak. Contact Tracers will be needed in every nook and cranny of America, from coast to coast. Wherever you live, contact tracers will be hired, it’s just a matter of who and when.
State and local governments are now launching initiatives to hire and train Contact Tracers. For example, New York City is current hiring 1,000 tracers at a salary of $57,000 per year, plus benefits. According to Business Insider, “Bipartisan health experts recommended Congress spend $12 billion to hire an additional 180,000 contract tracing workers over the next 18 months.”
In contrast, thousands of existing California government workers who may have lost their jobs have been re-assigned as Contact Tracers, so each state is managing the critical necessity for Contact Tracers in different ways. Check to see if your state or local government is hiring Contact Tracers.
Finally, private businesses have begun to hire their own Contact Tracers to help them re-open and stay open. Right now it’s a trickle, but soon many companies will have a Contact Tracer, or a team of Contract Tracers, on their payroll who are in charge of rapid response within their organizations. If a company wants their employees to show up, they will want Contact Tracers.
Contact Tracers, whether employed by the public or private sector, are going to be around a while. Even if a successful and safe vaccine went into production tomorrow, Contact Tracers would be needed to contain the virus until worldwide demand is met.
Philip Roufail contributed to this article.
Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercareerstrategies.com.
