Covid-19 has impacted our lives in in more way than we can imagine. While its effects are everywhere, perhaps the most painful of all has been how it has changed the job market. People getting thrown out of their jobs, eventually getting into crisis and making the situation worse. Workplace is being redefined, new job trends are rapidly evolving, remote work or work from home is becoming a new normal and upskilling or reskilling is becoming more critical than ever.
According to various studies, top job trends now favor IT based skills where automation will eliminate or minimize the need for the conventional workforce. This means that a large number of people will have to upskill or reskill themselves in order to merely survive. Computer literacy is now a must have skill without which most employers won’t even consider you for an interview. If change was ever imminent, this is the time when it will enforce itself with maximum impact.
Rapidly increasing reliance on automation has also greatly influenced high-paying careers and the shift is clearly visible moving toward information technology based careers. Artificial intelligence, data science and machine learning are the new buzz words and employers are rushing to get hold of candidates with these skills. No wonder, these skills are hard to get these days as demands far exceeds the supply, at least for the time being. It’s safe to say that professionals with these skills will have rewarding and fulfilling careers.
There are lessons in this for young college and university students. They need to analyze this changing environment and they need to adapt to it. While businesses will still need employees in finance, marketing, human resource, production, supply chain, etc., their skills need to be augmented with technology based analytical skills where they are comfortable with technology driven tools and processes in order to drive greater productivity and efficiency.
Based on these facts, one can easily understand that the future of job market will transform rapidly and how quickly we respond to these changes will determine our ability to have a sustainable future. A positive mindset and willingness to adapt is the attitude required to ride this tide of change. A massive growth in e-learning business tells us that the world has responded well. Individuals have shown resilience and they have jumped to this opportunity to learn new in-demand skills. Businesses are also waking up to this reality and moving towards digital transformation as means to remain relevant and profitable. Corporates are now increasingly working towards creating virtual spaces to conduct business. This is evident from huge growth in e-commerce business which incidentally has created thousands of new jobs within the supply chain domain. This trend is expected to continue and almost every walk of like will be impacted by this one way or the other.
