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The Post-Covid Job Market
Impact of Covid19 on the graduate job market
Some career decisions may have been made you by the COVID-19 crisis. You may have lost your summer job and had to cancel your plans work abroad for the summer. We in UCC Careers really appreciate the stress, uncertainty and disruption that this crisis has brought to your final year.
So how will COVID-19 continue to impact on the graduate job market? As situation is still unfolding and the outcome uncertain, it isn’t possible to answer all your questions. However, we would like to share with your sources of up-to-date, quality and accurate labour market information (LMI) with the aim of making you feel as informed and empowered a you assess your options.
The supply and demand of various types of career occupational (e.g. software programmers, architects) matters hugely to almost everybody. An oversupply of certain kind of qualified professionals can lead to unemployment. A shortage can hold back corporate and economic growth. That is why is it possible to find many sources of accurate, statistical information to help you understand the current state of the job (“labour”) market in any country, region, sector or profession. This information in known as “Labour Market Information/Intelligence” (LMI).
Labour market intelligence is information about the labour (job) market that has been analysed and interpreted before presenting it to the public. The information presented might include:
- Trends including employment and earnings outlooks by sector at national/regional level
- Skills needs, gaps and shortages and current and future skills demands
- Occupational information including entry requirements (educational and skill/attribute)
- Current and future job market demands for occupations/careers
Reviewing existing LMI for your target role or region can also help you to determine if a Post COVID-19 slump in job vacancies in any area is likely to be short-term or longer-term trend.
Labour market information can inform and empower our decision making. However, there is a risk that the volume (and sometimes presentation) of information can also be overwhelming and confusing.
Here are some questions to ask yourself when reviewing sources of LMI:
- Is this information up to date?
- Did significant events/change take place since publication? (e.g. Covid19 Pandemic)
- Is there reason to believe that the observed trend will continue or reverse in the near future? (Some trends can be cyclical - in some sectors as a surplus of professionals can become a shortages 5-6 years depending on economy and public investment, e.g. Construction)
- Is the information relevant to your country and region?
- How objective is the information? (Who produced it? Does the author have an agenda?) This isn’t such an issue for LMI from independent, established bodies (e.g. Skills Ireland). Private organisations or those representing a sector/industry bodies be motivated to convey as particular message or perspective. The information can still be useful but be aware of potential bias.
- Consult a careers advisor for guidance if LMI data confuses or concerns you, to help you to make sense of what you are reading.
- LMI is just one factor of your overall career decision making, along with your interest, values, skills and motivations. Career decisions should not be made, or options of interest eliminated, based on LMI alone.
Latest Updates on the Job Market
The following are some websites to which you can subscribe for timely, responsive, up-to-date and sometimes “up-to-the-minute” updates on the job market. Such updates can be particularly useful in these current, unprecedented times. While the data provided is extremely useful, bear in mind our guidelines for reviewing this information. For example, Indeed combines Irish and UK data in their statistical reports and Skills Panorama offers a European-wide perspective that may differ from the local context in Ireland. So keep your critical hat on when digesting these updates.
Skills Panorama turns labour market data into accurate and timely intelligence to offer new insights into skill needs in the European Union. A special new section has been created to address the unprecented and unexpected impact of the pandemic on the job market.
Indeed is a top global jobs site with 250 million unique visitors. The Indeed Hiring Lab produces regular updates on global labour market trends using Indeed’s proprietary data and publicly available sources. For example, an article produced by the on the 18th of May illustrates the comparison between this year’s market and that of 2019 and 2019.
However, the same article also reveals how the reduction in vacancies varies dramatically from sector to sector (as illustrated the following graph). And, as restrictions are lifted, these sectoral changes will continue to shift. Turn to Indeed’s Hiring Lab to keep informed
LinkedIn is one of the largest professional networks and LinkedIn’s Economic Graph benchmarks and compare labour markets across the world by analysing skills, occupations, and industries, leveraging real-time data. From your perspective as a final year students LinkedIn’s Economic Graph can provide you with on-the-pulse information on the sectors and countries with the most opportunities. You can also stay one step ahead with the “Future of Work” section that provides engaging reports on the likely impact of significant trends such Artificial Intelligence on the international job market.
Official sources of Labour Market Intelligence (LMI) in Ireland and Abroad
Governments across the world have a vested interest understanding the rapidly changing world of work through detailed analysis. They are also motivate to anticipate “future” demand for qualified people in key sectors. Such reports of “future skills needs” can provide be useful for citizens of that country and prospective workers from other countries.
Skills Ireland
In Ireland, an “Expert Group on Future Skills Needs” advises the Irish Government on current and future skills needs of the economy and on other labour market issues that impact on Ireland’s enterprise and employment growth. This expert group producse both long term general and sectoral reports (E.g. High Level ICT Demand Forecast in 2019) and shorter-term quarterly labour market bulletins that compare the number of vacancies in each sector with the availability of qualified candidates. This information helps the Government to identify shortages and develop appropriate responses to meet demand (e.g. upskilling programmes or lists of “critical skills” visas for suitably qualified candidates from other countries).
National Skills Council - Regional Skills
In recent years a National Skills Council was established in Ireland and 9 regional for a for employers and the education and training system to work together to meet the emerging skills needs of their regions. If you are keen to gain employment in a particular region in Ireland, you may want to have a look at how the job market looks in that region by reviewing the snapshots provided by the relevant forum.
Many of the courses are delivered to learners through Regional Skills initiatives are delivered to learners through their employers. Many of these courses are delivered online through “E-College”, a large repository of online courses endorses by SOLAS, the agency with responsibility for further eductation and training in Ireland.
In response to Covid19 response , the large stories of courses on E-College are now available for free to all! You can access the very practical courses to enhance your employability.
As in Ireland, most countries have their own national labour market intelligence websites that can reveal the volume of vacancies in that country in additional to national and regional skills needs.
CEDEFOP (the European Centre of the Development of Vocational Training) have developed a range of LMI tools to help people to explore options and alternatives in the world of work, and how to reach them. More longer term, “future of work” in Europe projections, can be found here, by country, sector, occupation and skills, including:
Australia’s Labour Market Information Portal
Australia’s LMIP can help you navigate the Australian job market by providing you with national and regional employment trends and projection, workforce shortages, industry-specific data and recruitment insights straight from employers.
Government of Canada Jobs Bank:
Job Bank is Canada’s national employment service which offers users Canadian vacancies, LMI trends and outlooks, career planning tools that can match you with occupations based on interests, skills and preferred workplace activities. Highly user-friendly tool for any person interested in work in Canada. There is also a summer jobs section for young people.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US provides a wealth of information on the labour market in the US, including and Occupational Outlook Handbook and Career Outlook resources that provides detailed information on all careers, and ranks them according to level of demand, salary earned and career outlook. The Career Outlook resource also includes detailed career paths, interviews with professionals in each occupation and graphic representation of employment data for each occupation.
