The usual trend for this data is a January jump in posts, followed by a fairly steady, slow decline throughout the year. This year was no different up until a few weeks after the pandemic was officially declared on March 11.

Posts with links to job ads dropped by 30% in the week of April 5. Prior to this, the average week-on-week change was -3%. This was the same week the US became the first country to record 2,000 deaths in a single day, and the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson went into intensive care with the virus.

The drop didn’t last long though, with the number of posts rising the following week. Since then, the number has increased on average by 3% week-on-week. Posts have levelled out recently, but continue to buck the usual downward seasonal trend.

Posts creeping upwards tells us that, despite Covid-19’s economic fallout so far, there are still plenty of companies looking to increase their workforce. It could also show that more people are sharing jobs to help out friends who have lost work. Looking at the trending keywords in the social data, these new post-Covid-19 roles tend to fall within the tech and healthcare sectors.

Changing demands

This is a tough time for recruiters. The nature of work has changed. Offices are closed and many more people work from home than before, while potential employees will have strong concerns about health and safety, particularly if their job involves dealing with the public.

We can see signs of a shift in job expectations by looking at two job-related searches.

Searches for nearby jobs follow a similar trajectory as social posts with job links, although the drop here is far larger. Searches quickly recovered though, and now sit relatively high compared to historical levels – this is likely caused by those who have lost their jobs going on the hunt for new ones.

Meanwhile, searches for ‘work from home’ skyrocketed and quickly dropped, but are now sitting far above previous levels. This tells us that while plenty of people are still looking for traditional jobs, there’s a marked increase in those looking to work from home too.

This is a huge change for recruiters and companies looking to hire. They need to think about what will make their roles more attractive for remote workers. Meanwhile, employee retention could become more of a challenge as competition not only comes from the local area, but potentially every city in the world.

On the other hand, it’s a huge blessing. If you’re set up for remote work, your pool of potential workers is suddenly a lot larger (encompassing the whole world if you want to do the admin work).

We also found another change when looking at search data. With a lot of people losing work all at once, that means competition for jobs is much tougher (especially in sectors badly affected by the fallout of Covid-19, like travel).

If you can’t find an in-house role, what do you do?

Interest in freelancing has shot up since the pandemic was declared.

This could mean a lot of struggle for some. Going freelance is no easy task and takes a lot of time, effort, and resources. Add that to a whole slew of extra people competing for work, and it becomes far tougher. Meanwhile, if companies tighten their belts and cut budgets for freelancers, the idea of working for yourself could turn into a pipe dream.

As we’ve all heard, and likely said ourselves, it is still early days. At best, we’re at the end of the beginning of this pandemic and there’s far more to come that we can’t predict. But the signs are there – the way many of us work is going to become very different, and the change could be permanent.

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Stay safe,

Brandwatch Response Team