- Analysis of live vacancies across the world show a notable drop in new jobs advertised as Governments battle to stop the spread of the virus.
- Unsurprisingly, Italy is the biggest casualty with a 41% drop in vacancies since March 1st.
- The UK has seen a drop of 17% in new jobs in the past fortnight, as hospitality, manufacturing and trade roles take a hit.
Early indications of the impact of coronavirus on the global job market are stark, with job advertising dipping steeply in March so far. Global Government policies to prevent the spread have had varying consequences for the job market according to job search engine Adzuna.co.uk.
Italy is seeing the biggest falls after experiencing a complete lockdown 9 days ago. The nation has seen a 40.7% reduction in new job vacancies in the past two weeks. Austria is the second biggest casualty with 29% job ad reductions. This follows a series of drastic measures to contain the outbreak, including exit restrictions across the country. New Zealand and Brazil have also seen more than 20% drops in March so far, despite New Zealand announcing a spending package of NZ$12.1B (4% of GDP) in an attempt to fight the effects of Convid-19 on the economy.
| Country | % change from March 1st |
| Italy | -40.7% |
| Austria | -29.0% |
| New Zealand | -27.5% |
| Brasil | -22.6% |
| Australia | -19.8% |
| UK | -17.0% |
| Poland | -16.9% |
| Russia | -16.7% |
| Netherlands | -14.6% |
| France | -9.9% |
| South Africa | -7.3% |
| Germany | -1.0% |
IT, engineering, legal, hospitality and manufacturing are among many industries to see a notable decline across the world in March. IT job vacancies have dropped by more than a fifth (-21.7%), while engineering job vacancies are down 17.5%. Hospitality vacancies have already dropped by 9.1% and the situation is likely to worsen, as government restrictions around social contact starts to take hold. Trade and Construction and Manufacturing jobs have also felt the strain with an 8.2% and 7.8% drop respectively. The travel industry is also predicted to fall due to continued travel restrictions. Travel vacancies have dropped 58% in the UK alone in the past two weeks, after British Airways, EasyJet and Norwegian air all announced cuts to flights in response to the outbreak. We expect travel restrictions to continue in the following months.
In contrast, the number of part-time and gig jobs have increased significantly in the past two weeks, a common byproduct of a recession and economic uncertainty. Part-time and gig vacancies have increased by 22.1% in March across the globe, as employers look for greater flexibility to respond to changes and peaks in demand.
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Doug Monro, Co-Founder of Adzuna comments “The last few weeks have been incredibly difficult, we have sadly seen infections increase across the globe and drastic measures put in place to prevent the spread. This level of uncertainty, coupled with physical restrictions in movement, has caused an alarming drop in vacancies across the majority of industries, although some like healthcare and delivery-based sectors are growing. We are also seeing short-term drops in organic candidate traffic to Adzuna of up to 40% in European markets over the last few days. While it remains to predict the long term effects the virus will have on the economy and the job market, we hope to see employers supporting their staff with flexibility and paid time off to help them through this”.
