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Hiring in the United Kingdom has come to a stand-still as majority of the businesses in the country are trying to preserve cash amidst weakened economic conditions in the country. The monthly job survey conducted by KPMG and REC for the month of March has revealed that vacancies in the country have entered into a contraction phase for the first time in ten years and on a monthly basis it is the single largest fall since October 1997. The lockdown in the country imposed by the government to contain the coronavirus pandemic has brough down business activity levels in the country to a grinding slow. Small businesses like restaurants, pubs and such similar businesses are considering prospects of laying off their staff which in turn is raising fears of a major unemployment crisis in the country. However, despite all the chaos two sectors are shining- the Healthcare sector and the Retail sector. Both of these sectors have been hiring aggressively in the past few weeks to meet the increased activity levels in their respective sectors as their services have become critical components in the country’s fight against the pandemic.
The outbreak of the pandemic has brought the country to the brink of a recession. The unemployment rates are expected to double within the next few months. Apart from the small scale, mid-tier businesses and the self-employed class of people in the country are at the maximum risk while most of them belong to the unorganized sector. Last week the PMI service activity index published by the IHS Markit company had also revealed that the activity levels in the entire economy was at a all time low with the services sector particularly bearing the brunt of the pandemic. Certain sectors though have a mitigating factor in the form of work from home arrangements being made possible through digital technology and telecommunications equipment allowing people to continue business from their home, but that is hardly making up for the loss in activity levels. Among the larger industries, those who are experiencing almost total drawdown of business activity levels are the airline industry, the other forms of transport industries like railways and road transport and the hospitality and leisure industries. While some of the staff members of these industries have already been laid off, others are sitting on the risk of job loss or reduced number of working hours/days.
The retail and the healthcare sectors on the other had have seen a rise in their business activity levels. The healthcare industry which is currently at the forefront of the countries fight with the pandemic is currently hiring for multiple skill types. While companies working in biotechnological research are hiring more trained researchers, there is also a huge demand for healthcare workers who would take care of the coronavirus patients who are being admitted in the healthcare facilities across the country. The demand for people in the public health department has also seen a meteoric rise as the country tries to identity and sanitize where infected patients resided. On the other hand, the online retail sector has seen a boom in its sales levels. As a greater number of people are forced to stay indoors, they are forced to rely on the digital medium to order provisions. This has led to a sharp rise in the number of online orders coming into the systems for most of the retailers in the country. The requirement for drivers, delivery staff, and packaging and material handling staff has suddenly gone up manifold in the country because of the same. In fact, these two sectors along with the banking industry are expected to be in the thick of activity all through the pandemic providing lifeline to the country.
The pandemic is expected to continue to batter the British economy for some more months now. The number of people getting infected everyday and the number of deaths are not showing any signs of abatement in the United Kingdom. Several businesses in the country are on the brink of bankruptcy, with risk to thousands of jobs. It is when the government has already announced massive stimulus package to protect the businesses with employment protection as its central theme. Right from the beginning when the government announced a £30 billion stimulus package to help small and medium businesses, the mode of delivery was to pay part of the salaries of staff of these businesses should they continue to retain its employees. When the larger loan guarantee schemes were announced, the government made its intentions clear that their focus is to help companies pay for their unavoidable costs and salaries of staff while they continued to battle the weakened demand conditions emanating out of the pandemic.
It’s not just the United Kingdom where new employments are taking a hit. In Europe, the situation is much worse where the pandemic has caused the maximum damage. In the United States also several companies have started to scale back their business operations, waiting for the pandemic storm to pass away, and in the mean-time freezing any new recruitment drives. The risk of the rising unemployment levels have worried the governments and central banks across the world. Most central banks have lowered their interest rates to historical lows and governments have been rolling out stimulus packages so that the loss on account of business failures and employments can be minimized.
The international monetary fund last week declared that the world has entered into a recession. It will take a while before the world is able to get back to the normal business activity levels. The new employment sector is expected to continue the struggle till then. Even if the sectors which are showing increased levels of activity now are able to continue to hire more people, the numbers may not be high enough to bring back the whole sector out of contraction. At this time everyone around the world is holding their breath and waiting for the pandemic to subside.
