How Has the Coronavirus Impacted Your Chosen Career?

The coronavirus outbreak has taken an unexpected hit to many industries around the world. Some saw sales go up, others experienced a huge slump. Many non-essential businesses were forced to close.

But what does this mean for graduates? Is your chosen industry still hiring? Will you be working from home?  What issues are different sectors currently facing, and what does the future look like for your career?c

Read on as we explore how the coronavirus has directly affected a selection of industries, and what these changes will mean for graduates looking for jobs in that sector.

The Retail Industry

How has it been impacted by the coronavirus?

The retail industry has been impacted heavily by the coronavirus, with most non-essential stores forced to close due to the introduction of lockdown. The industry has taken a massive hit in overall sales, despite an increase in online shopping. Stores are now slowly starting to reopen in many countries around the world.

Overall growth has slowed in the retail industry, according to one report, but it has still grown by 4.1 percent this year. This is, however, significantly lower than growth in other years.

There has been a huge shift to online shopping. Worldwide online traffic for supermarkets has increased by an incredible 135 percent, with retail tech increasing by 129 percent.

Most of the sector’s growth is in food and grocery stores, as fashion retail outlets struggle. According to the report, food and grocery stores in the UK have beaten their expected growth of nearly three percent in 2020 and are now expecting a growth of 7.5 percent.

Contrastingly, sales for apparel stores, such as fashion, were expecting a growth of 0.5 percent but are instead now facing a fall of 26.7 percent.

Are they still hiring?

In short, yes. In the US, Walmart announced that they are adding 150,000 workers in stores, Amazon has 100,000 positions to fill and CVS are hiring for 50,000 positions.

Most of the larger companies are also offering graduate schemes, although you may start these working from home, with a transition to the office later.

What does the future look like?

Now that stores are starting to reopen, the general hope is that retail will start to slowly go back to normal. However, this, of course, is dependent on the virus – if there is a second wave, stores may be forced to close once again.

US retail sales have rebounded by a record 17.7 percent in May since states began reopening their economies and American consumers have been able to return to stores. 

Despite this, the retail industry was already facing problems before the coronavirus, so its future, for now, appears uncertain. Additionally, the fact that many stores have been unable to open will mean there will be a lot of extra stock in the retail market which will be discounted when stores reopen fully in order to make way for new stock. This means a lot of lost sales.

The Tourism Industry 

How has it been impacted by the coronavirus?

COVID-19 has brought tourism to a standstill. It has been one of the worst affected industries, according to the World Tourism Organization.

However, there is a glimmer of hope for the tourism industry, as many countries are set to reopen their borders soon.

The worldwide tourism industry was predicted to make US$711,940 million at the beginning of 2020, but is now predicted to make only a fraction of that, at US$447,410 million.

Worldwide, the online traffic for tourism has decreased by 73 percent, according to one study.

This is understandable due to the closure of holiday destinations and companies such as Airbnb and the restrictions on air travel.

Are they still hiring?
Although some companies are still hiring, according to Statistica, there will be a total loss of 101 million jobs in the tourism industry in 2020, with the Asia Pacific region hit the hardest, followed by Europe.

Companies in the tourism industry are sure to start hiring once again after the coronavirus pandemic is over and borders start to reopen. 

What does the future look like?

Although the industry’s outlook may appear quite bleak currently, the tourism industry is definitely not one to write off when looking for your future career. Once lockdown ends and countries start to reopen, we should see a surge in tourism as people start to travel again.

The new EU overview website, reopen.europa.eu provides up to date information on the coronavirus rules of 27 EU countries, as Europe slowly starts opening up its borders again.

The United Nations Tourism Organization have predicted that by 2030, there will be 1.8 billion worldwide tourists a year. This surge in tourism will present plenty of opportunities for jobs all around the world. 

The Financial Industry

Coronavirus impact

As bank branches close and people lose their jobs or become furloughed, there has been immense pressure on online and customer services, and a general shift to mobile banking.

The coronavirus has meant that social distancing requirements have been put in place, and very few customers (if any) have been able to be served in a physical bank branch. This has put immense pressure on other channels, such as telephone support, social media and online.

Demand for customer services have also increased, as record numbers of people have questions, concerns and requests due to their finances having been impacted by the virus.

Fintech firms are well equipped to deal with this, however some have found their funding to be uncertain due to COVID-19. Others are developing products that fit people’s needs, and many are offering their services to customers and businesses for free. 

Are they still hiring?
Several large firms, including PwC, Lloyds Banking Group and BDO have been forced to make changes to their recruitment plans because of lockdown measures, which have generally included moving the process online.

For example, PwC has cancelled its summer internship and has offered alternatives to these 400 successful students, which may include automatic entry to the firm’s graduate programs in 2021. The firm’s new recruits will be trained online, and their summer work experience program will be offered online to all 5,500 students who originally applied. 

Lloyds and Santander have cancelled their summer internship schemes and allowed successful applicants to progress to the final round of the 2021 graduate schemes. Goldman Sachs has pushed back the start dates for their internships. 

What does the future look like?

The future of finance looks to be online for the foreseeable future. Covid-19 has forced finance firms to dramatically accelerate banking transformation online, with entire departments now working from home.

In the long term this might reduce customers’ reliance on the traditional bank branch, as there looks to be an increased focus on fintech, as consumers’ demand for online banking continues to rise.

The Advertising, Media and Marketing Industries

Coronavirus impact

With people staying at home and consuming only necessities, there is a lack of demand for many types of goods, which has led to an overall decrease in advertising spending. In addition, the cancellation of physical events, such as sports events, have also meant a sharp decline in advertising.

As a result, several commercial broadcasters, including ITV, have tried to move their funding sources away from advertising, towards subscriptions and content licensing.

There has been a shift from desktop ad spending to mobile ad spending, with display ad impressions up three percent to 51 percent since the pandemic started. Total mobile ad spend has fallen by 15% since the start of the outbreak (early March) compared to desktop ad spending, which dropped by 25% during the same period.

Are they still hiring?

Many advertising and marketing agencies are still hiring. The only differences you might experience are changes in interview methods to online, with online interviews and virtual assessment centers.

Other firms, faced with uncertainty, have halted the hiring process for now to see what the long-term impact of the virus will be.

Several media firms are still hiring, such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, Bloomberg Media and Politico. 

What does the future look like?

The near future looks to be online. For many firms, hired employees will start working from home digitally, rather than in person, at least until lockdown measures are relaxed. There are thoughts that working remotely looks to be ‘the new normal’ for many industries.

The long-term future, however, is very uncertain for advertising and marketing. It is not known whether agencies will have many projects, whether they will reduce spending or how many employees they need. This will become a lot clearer post-coronavirus.