Workers on hunt for new direction
THREE million Australians are planning a post-pandemic career change, making the jump into a completely different field.
Whether spurred by job insecurity or the discovery of a new skill during isolation, ING’s Future Focus research found 35 per cent of surveyed Australians wanted a new job after COVID-19, and 17 per cent were rethinking their career path entirely.
ING retail banking head Melanie Evans said many people were “clearly anxious” about the current situation, while others had time to think about whether their job gave them purpose and meaning.
“At the end of the day, it’s Australians realising the new norm is not what it was three or six or 12 months ago,” she said. “We are a resourceful bunch and we look at practical ways of taking control and taking pragmatic steps to do something about it.”
Nvoi group chief executive and JXT managing director
Raife Watson said now was the “best time” to be exploring a career change.
“There is only so much running in a park and Netflix bingeing you can do – maybe take this time to think about your career,” he said.
The former Adzuna chief executive believed all hospitality and retail workers should be considering a new field as their jobs would be insecure, even into the future.
“(Those sectors) are opening up slowly (but) not all of those jobs will come back and they will be the first to go again if there is another (COVID-19) spike and we lock down again,” he said.
He recommended career changers seeking job security set their sights on work in health and aged care, the public sector, information technology, logistics or construction.
“There is a lot of talk about securing our supply chains, so I wouldn’t be surprised if manufacturing – which was waning – will have opportunities going forward,” he said.
“Logistics employment was already increasing because of online shopping and delivery and that has doubled down.
“Construction is constantly being talked about to come back first. In terms of stimulus packages, money is being poured into that.”
Futurist Anders SörmanNilsson predicted new roles would also emerge.
For example, he forecast growing demand for medical tele-storytellers trained to explain diagnoses via digital interfaces; financial coaches that combined financial advice and psychological insight; and black swan risk managers that prepared companies for the most unlikely events.
“Pandemics have a history of spawning cultural and labour transformation,” he said.
“The Black Plague spawned the birth of the Renaissance, and there was inclusion of women in the workforce after the Spanish flu. We are really seeing transformation and we predict a second renaissance as people start to re-skill or transform to join new growth industries in the future.”
We’ve got a lot of people who are recently unemployed coming to us and don’t care what it is so long as they have a job SKILL 360 CHIEF EXECUTIVE PAUL DALY