CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The latest jobs report from the U.S. government is worse than expected.
The surge in coronovirus cases is slowing down the economy and more employers are letting workers go. One staffing agency says employers and employees must evolve to thrive.
Reinvention and awareness of the job market are necessary to any employer or employee's future success in a post-COVID economy. Some industries are having more success than others, so knowing how to navigate a new job market is key.
According to Jared Coseglia with Tru Staffing Partners, "Things are looking pretty good unless you're in the hospitality industry. We lost about 140,000 jobs in December and is the first time we've seen job loss, when we had the big dip between March and April."
Some areas that are seeing gains are construction and manufacturing industries and professional and business services which includes software, is up to 161,000 jobs.
"This is a great time to be looking for a job, whether you're out of work or looking to reinvent," Coseglia said.
He says, reinvention is something people should embrace. With more time on their hands, now is the time to seek additional training and education.
"Number one, get educated," Coseglia said. "It's the first and number one question that was asked in interviews in 2020. Which is, what did you do during the pandemic to grow professionally?"
The second tip is to be visible.
But with the pandemic, doing that in person is difficult, so be visible online.
Coseglia says to have a strong Linkedin profile with a good picture of you smiling and a good articulation of your experiences and skill sets on that profile. Most employers are looking at Linkedin profiles, he says.
For employers looking at remote employment, they now have the added ability to open up their talent pool, gaining applicants from all across the country.
The other benefit for hiring remotely for employers, is that we found about a 10% to 30% decrease in salaries that people were willing to take for remote employment.
Now is the time for personal growth. Whether it's developing your workforce or growing your skill set, the job market is rebounding. Being able to adapt with change, may be your key to success in the future.
Linkedin reports it has more than 14 million open jobs and more than 700 million people on its website.