New research has determined the career paths most at risk by the effects that the coronavirus is having on the economy – as well as those that are better positioned to weather the storm.
There are several factors about a career path that can impact how resilient it is to the pandemic. Among the most the important of these is the ability to work from home. Jobs in finance and technology that can be performed remotely have been able to carry on throughout the crisis with business almost as usual.
Public facing, service industry, and especially travel related occupations have felt the brunt of the negative economic consequences from the lockdown and COVID restrictions. The UN recently reported that globally, the tourism industry is potentially facing a one trillion-dollar loss, with as many as 100 million jobs at risk due to the coronavirus.
A recent international survey of nearly 17,000 workers found that women and workers without a university degree were significantly more likely to have lost their job. This was due to the industries the demographics tended to work in, childcare and gender roles, and the aforementioned ability to work from home.
The likelihood of job loss due to COVID-19 by sector
The top five jobs at risk Food preparation / serving Transport Production Personal care / service Arts / media / recreation
Industries moderately impacted Sales Health Construction / mining Building cleaning / maintenance Life / physical / social science Office administration Installation / maintenance / repair Management Community / social service
Safer occupations Legal Health support Business / finance Architecture / engineering Computer / math Agriculture / forestry
The study notes that even within these industries, the ability to work from home explains 69 per cent of the variation in job loss across occupations. If you could work remotely, your job was safer. If you had to physically travel to a group setting to perform tasks – or if your work involved in transporting other people – your job was likely negatively impacted by COVID-19.
On the brighter side, according to the latest labour force data from Statistics Canada, this country has already recovered 1.9 million jobs – or nearly two-thirds of the total jobs that were lost due to the pandemic.