Data from online jobs board Zoek has shown that the world of work is changing post-pandemic, and it’s the hospitality sector which is suffering the most and the tech sector the least.

One of the industries hit the hardest by COVID19 and the government-enforced restrictions is hospitality and catering. Hotels, restaurants, pubs and cafes were all forced to close for the majority of the last fifteen months. A report by consultants CGA and AlixPartners recently said there have been almost 6,000 permanent site closures in 2020 in the sector, a 175% increase since 2019.

Approximately 600,000 jobs have been lost in that sector alone. After losing out on Christmas income and being unable to take advantage of several bank holidays this year, more businesses have shut down.

Those that have survived are now back open and seeing beer gardens full. Since March, applications on Zoek for hospitality and catering workers are up 500%.  Alongside this is the fact that there is now a shortage of skilled staff in the hospitality sector such as chefs, bar staff, and waiters.

Diana Campbell, managing director at Zoek said:
“There has been a 1200% increase in hospitality job adverts posted on Zoek since March. This indicates that furloughed staff haven’t waited around for the pubs and restaurants to reopen, many have decided to look for better job security elsewhere. EU nationals may have also gone elsewhere hoping for more security post-Brexit. This has left us with many hirers urgently recruiting for new staff, and thankfully we’ve been able to supply them with the right candidates.”

Some sectors such as marketing and IT are recording a surplus of candidates when recruiting for roles. A large part of this is likely down to flexible remote working opportunities becoming a permanent fixture in some workplaces.

Back in May 2020, Zoek recorded a 300% increase in work from home job searches compared to May 2019. May 2021 has seen the number of searches drop by 22% with some job seekers confident in returning to physical workplaces, but there is still a strong demand for home working.

Zoek itself made the decision early in 2020 to allow staff to work from home and still encourages a balance of remote and office working.

Diana Campbell, stated:
“I believe staff perform their best when they’re comfortable and working from home has allowed for people to have a better work-life balance, save time and money commuting and in our case be more productive. I still want staff to feel like they can come into the office and the teams do usually come in once or twice a week to have meetings and interact with each other.”

LinkedIn predicts there will be over 150 million new technology jobs globally in the next five years. Last month over three million IT jobs were live on Zoek, a phenomenal increase year on year and still growing.

The world is becoming more digital. COVID-19 has added more appeal to tech jobs, with the industry one of the least affected by the pandemic. So far in 2021, the IT industry has received the highest number of candidate applications each month than any other category on Zoek.

Spare a thought for the aviation, travel & tourism sector. A lot of people in the UK will know the feeling of having to cancel their holiday because of COVID-19. It’s still an issue now with some holiday providers cancelling all flights until August.

This has had a knock-on effect for those working in the travel and aviation industry with holiday reps, stewards, pilots and travel agents who were either made redundant or furloughed. Customer service roles in the travel industry have increased with thousands seeking refunds and compensation for cancelled flights and holidays.

Unfortunately for those looking to get into the travel and tourism industry as it stands, job openings are down 28% compared to 2020. The good news for travel and tourism companies is there is a growing talent pool of candidates applying for roles in the industry. Zoek witnessed a 1550% increase in travel and tourism applications last month compared to the same time last year, giving hirers more choice.

Furthermore, by 2023 it’s believed there will be a shortage of qualified pilots due to the interruption of training, fewer pilots exiting the military and concerns regarding the stability of the aviation industry with countless airlines including Flybe and Thomas Cook going into administration in 2020.

Diana Campbell commented:
“There needs to be an increased amount of communication and transparency throughout the recruitment process so that both the candidate and hirer can feel confident working together. We try to ensure all the candidates that apply on Zoek are well suited to the job, but there’s more to recruitment now than matching up skills. The industries that are suffering from shortages need to do more to encourage workers to develop their skillset and offer more opportunities for growth to avoid a large staff turnover.”

To find out more about Zoek, which operates in the UK, India and the USA, visit: https://zoek.uk or download the app.