How will Coronavirus impact job opportunities across sectors?

Experts all across the world say that sectors that depend on peoples' behaviour would take the longest time to recover after the end of the lockdown period, while those curbed by the Central Government to contain the spread of Coronavirus are set for a bounce-back immediately after the restrictions are removed.

Here’s what experts believe the impact of Coronavirus will have on job opportunities across various sectors:

Sectors That Remain Afloat

IT world, telecommunication sector and companies connected with the digital world did not really see the downfall in true sense. So, companies coming in this category are those connected with the digital world and providing services which enable digital

• entertainmet such as Netflix and Amazon Prime
• work and office systems like video conferencing software,
• logistics supply chain, etc.

Sectors That Will Bounce Back

• Medical sector, health equipment and digital companies are among those which have seen a jump in their business following the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Physiotherapy and Indian medicine like Ayurveda will see a big rise.
• E-commerce and home delivery, both by normal retail and by e-commerce companies, would see a further uptick.
• Transportation, storage, warehousing would come back quickly once the lockdown is lifted.

Now, the interesting thing is that, for these sectors to continue doing good, IT support is needed. So it is expected that IT will keep on doing good and better, most noticeably.

Sectors That Will Need Time

Those which would not bounce back anytime soon, are those which depend on people's behaviour such as travel and tourism, retail. People will not like to travel unnecessarily, they will not like to stay in hotels, (who knows who stayed there earlier). Tourism industries may take time to revive as activities of tourism will come down dramatically.    

Now, all these mentioned above, are the general notion of the experts, but as they say, you cannot pluck the future out of the crystal ball, so things might not work exactly as per our expectations.

Who thought that people will not prefer to stay at home, and will jump to the liquor shops as soon as they open, creating long queues? So, the unexpected behaviour of people does stand otherwise to the opinion made by experts on the future. Liquor industry might justify my thought process on the seven sectors I talk about below:

Construction: There is doubt if property buyers will be in a position to repay their loans. As it is, real estate tends to dip during the monsoon season. So, it is expected that the construction sector will go down. But then, is not there a chance of very quick climb back of activity? There might be a rush among the builders to complete pending projects, and acquire the money from the investors, which may lead to jobs in the construction sector.

Travel and tourism: Similarly, in the extreme scenarios now painted, there seems to be no hope for the travel and hospitality segments. Most experts feel that there will be job losses, bankruptcies and shutdowns. Let’s also look at the hopeful side. There are tens of thousands of people stranded across the globe - home or away, at their origins or midway. There will also be untold thousands who would now wish to visit their family - after not having been able to be with them in times of deep uncertainty. People may be afraid of travel, but they may also want to move as if freed from prison. Post lockdown, the sales of air tickets may skyrocket, as may their prices; the related spike in demand may shore up the hospitality sector, too.

Agriculture: Farmers are sitting on a bumper Rabi crop, although there are indications of a 15-20 per cent loss in wheat production due to untimely rain. However, is not this a consideration too, that a portion of migrant families, who go back to their villages and do odd jobs during this season, are available as farm labourers? Earlier, these migrant labourers would refuse to work back home at lesser rates. Now, as they cannot do those odd jobs they do in normal times, they are willing to work at those lesser rates, which may lead to jobs in decision-making sector of the agriculture industry to make it flourish with the help of availability of cheap labour.

Restaurant: It is expected that the restaurant sector will go down, as people might not prefer going to restaurants now. But cannot the demand for dining activity also increase immediately? People might go out in large numbers for dining (as again, freed from prison), but on the contrary, there will be a certain portion of people who will not miss an opportunity to rush to their preferred restaurant post-pandemic, which might drive the sales of the restaurant business.

Retail and Multiplex: It is expected that retail and multiplex sector will go down, but then cannot the same unpredictable nature of people drive them towards retail stores and multiplexes to find entertainment post-pandemic, and boost up this industry, too.

Automobile: Automobile Industry has been predicted to face a bit of heat, expecting people not to purchase cars, owing to the expected less intent of people on moving out. However, it is to be remembered that at the moment, the emotion of people are going strongly against China. Then the intent of the world on moving towards electric cars gives a huge opportunity to the Indian market to produce and capitalise on electric cars, for which we were dependent mostly on China. That may lead to a big number of jobs in the automobile industry, too.

Banking: Owing to a number of possible bad debts due to bankruptcy declaration, the banking sector has also been predicted to face the heat. However, for the banks with high provision coverage, there is a chance for them for more loan disbursement to the big players, wanting to invest on new sectors to come out post-pandemic, and consequent bigger profits over time, subject to no similar situation in near future.

All said and done, the IT sector will flourish due to its essential needs and will grab the market with ease especially Artificial Intelligence or "AI” which is an imitation of the human intellect, exercised by machines. The world has emerged in the fabrication of new technologies which would reduce human efforts and Artificial Intelligence is the way which can show a new path through which the authenticity and quality of work diminishing the errors. Railways, telecoms, Airports, Corporate etc have started to adapt to this change with the upgradation of technologies and will continue to do so with a more rapid pace. The medical sector will try to impose this technology to avoid contagious outrage. Machines and robots will get involvement in the workforce at a rapid pace as “work from home” might be a new work culture. As a result Machine learning and the Internet of things will come in the forefront and will lead the industry, leading to a lot of jobs in these fields for Computer Science and Electronics Engineers.

Whatever be the situation of the world and it's economy, the best place to go for anybody is a University, the best use of time is learning. So, for you also, considering that nature of jobs is going to change big way, 30 per cent reshuffling of jobs is inevitable, higher education at the moment in the right direction is a mandate.

But what is the right direction?

The students and their parents should always keep in mind that your choice of higher education will always go by the nature of the industry and it should always be driven towards the sector of the industry, which is flourishing.

About Author

Prof Dr Biswajoy Chatterjee is the Vice-Chancellor at UEM Jaipur - University of Engineering & Management.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha