Job Market Trends – What to Expect as Companies Reopen After Second COVID-19 Wave

current job market trends

The hiring process seemed to change in an instant in 2020 when the new coronavirus began shutting down communities worldwide. Job offers and internships were rescinded. Open positions disappeared. Any in-person interviews moved online. Of course, the labor market also exploded with new talent as companies let go of workers. Now that some countries are beginning to take early steps to reopen thanks to the help of vaccines and other public health measures, we should take a moment to examine the hiring process. Will anything change over the next few months? Are any of the pandemic-induced changes here to stay? What are the current job market trends?

Insights from JobsPik’s job data indicates some job market trends.

Current Job Market Trends

Video Interviews Are Here to Stay

Video interviews had been part of the hiring process for years, but the technology was mostly used for initial conversations. COVID-19 forced companies to rely more heavily on video interviews for the entire hiring process. In many cases, people were hired during the pandemic for jobs without ever meeting in person with a hiring manager or company representative, something relatively uncommon before 2020. There are several current job market trends.

The reliance on video interviews is likely here to stay, based on the job type data gathered. Also, some recruiters say video interviews are working out better than in-person conversations.

The reason companies will continue to embrace video interviews as a large part of the hiring process is simple. Video interviews are much more manageable and cost-effective than flying in candidates for rounds of interviews. They can also speed up the hiring process. 

In-person interviews may become a best practice and preference for final round discussions. Still, the last year plus has shown it is definitely not a must for successful hiring.

An Openness to Remote Working Arrangements

Many companies are currently trying to strike a balance between in-office work and remote arrangements for their employees. The job data shows that some employers still believe in-person encounters are crucial to their business’s success. It doesn’t hurt their bottom line for other leading firms and has helped cut down on office costs.

Regardless, job seekers are likely to find that potential employers are more accepting of remote working arrangements than before the pandemic. In addition to many people enjoying the flexibility brought on by remote work, employers can also use the structure to woo top talent outside their local areas.

Some companies that won’t allow employees to work from home, at least part-time, may find themselves at a disadvantage. For example, job seekers choosing between two or more similar offers may select the one that will allow them to work from home a few days a week than the offer from a company that requires them to be in an office every day.

Job Seekers Will Regain Power in the Hiring Process

Job seekers have felt powerless for most of the pandemic. The general feeling was that so many people were out of work that companies had their pick of top talent for any open position. But that is starting to change. The job data feeds from the leading geographies showed that the talent competition is heating up, and it’s putting job seekers back in the driver’s seat. The result is improved salary and better hikes.

Of course, competition and all of these other current job market trends rely heavily on industry-specific factors. Success in fighting back the coronavirus is another factor that will affect these current job market trends. Sadly, some countries continue to see incredibly high COVID-19 infection rates representing immeasurable pain. However, the good news is that the second wave of the pandemic has not impacted the job market.

Our JobsPikr API offers a fully automated enterprise-grade job scraping tool. You can set up and ask for custom requirements using the API. And the extracted data is delivered in the desired format

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