Global shift towards e-commerce sees a demand for degree-less jobs

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Covid-19 and the imposition of global lockdowns changed the landscape of traditional jobs. In the US, hiring levels are currently 15% higher than pre-pandemic levels. With the significant shift towards e-commerce, job creation is occurring rapidly and many new roles are accessible to those without tertiary education. In this interesting podcast by our partners at Bloomberg, reporters Matt Miller and Kailey Leinz discussed job demand with Andrew Hunter, Co-Founder of Adzuna. – Nadya Swart

Andrew Hunter on the changing job landscape:

What we’re seeing in the US at the moment is hiring levels at 15% above February 2020 – so, pre pandemic levels. So the job ad inventory is there, folks are getting back to work and hiring – but luring in those candidates is proving to be increasingly difficult in specific sectors, but also specific states all around the country.

What we’re seeing at Adzuna is a boom in hiring in health care and nursing, in logistics and warehouse and in construction and manufacturing. Those are the three sectors where we’re seeing double digit percentage increases year on year in activity. So, the challenge is getting folks into those jobs fast and giving them the confidence to return to work. 

On what’s driving the demand for degree-less jobs:

If you think about the last 12 to 14 months and the way that the economy’s shifted towards this e-commerce boom and at-home economy – where delivery and logistics and warehouses are becoming increasingly important to the heartbeat of the economy – that’s where such a huge amount of this job creation is occurring. And many of those roles are accessible to folks without a degree.

So, what we did at Adzuna is index about four million job vacancies from the last two months and looked at those roles that did not specifically say that a degree is required and it was well over half of the vacancies. So, that should give some optimism to those that are educated up to a college level, and I think the other point to make is that you don’t have to be a Mark Zuckerberg to work at a technology company. Being educated to that [college] level and having a computer science degree is not a stipulation for working at Facebook, Google, Apple. They’re hiring in droves at the moment for administrations staff, sales staff, marketing staff – none of which necessarily require a degree. 

On whether these companies [that are hiring those without tertiary education] are offering training:

A lot of the companies are offering training, and what I think we’re also seeing in the economy at the moment is a big skills shift and job seekers trying to understand how their skills might match to new sectors of the industries. We’re seeing on our platform that many job seekers are trying better to understand their skills and how they might apply to new sectors and where those training offers might be. 

On getting people to come back into the office:

I don’t think that companies are going to have to increase wages to get people in the door. I think the big unveiling will come when stimulus checks come to an end and folks will be forced to seek gainful employment very quickly. 

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