(Newswire.net — August 17, 2020) —
In March, the IT industry was busy helping businesses transition their employees to work from home following government stay at home orders. They were also busy helping companies set up to sell products online or build applications for pre-ordering goods and services. However, as the pandemic has stretched on, the IT industry has not been immune from the layoffs and down-sizing from the struggling economy, according to top best California Nakase Law Accident Lawyers and Employment Attorneys.
In April, employment fell by 20.5 million as it became obvious that the pandemic was going to stretch on longer than expected. The unemployment rate was at 14.7%. Of these 20.5 million newly jobless, 111,900 were from the technology sector or less than 1% of the 12.1 million tech workforce. Even those these numbers are small in comparison to the country’s total unemployment; it is still the largest source of unemployment in the history of the tech industry.
Of these job losses in the tech industry, many of these have come from non-tech roles such as sales, retail, and marketing as tech companies try to preserve the brains of their business. This is reassuring for IT professionals who are unlikely to be cut during the pandemic. Especially for companies who are relying on remote work for their employees and expanding their online sales and services.
Compared to other types of occupations, IT is predicted to be one of the safest types of work in the current economy. This comes with the rise of AI and automation software needing skilled workers to adapt and maintain these new processes. Forrester Research’s Future of Work Report predicts that the following four categories of work will grow:
- Human touch workers, such as nurses, personal trainers, and massage therapists
- Cross-domain knowledge workers
- Teachers or trainers
- Digital elites
These predictions come from before the Covid-19 pandemic, but the researches say that their predictions remain the same. Organizations will accelerate their transition to automation, making these sectors likely to boom in the next few months.
Further predictions of the future of work during and after the pandemic include:
- The use of personal protective equipment
- Managing contact between workers and customers
- Regular testing for the virus
- Contact tracing
- Automating warehouse work
- Use of robotics to check and order inventory
- Automating administration
These strategies will not only limit the exposure of workers to the viruses but also allow businesses to make long term savings. Now that many businesses have accepted the reality that the pandemic is likely to restrict the normal way of life well into 2021, they have looked at where costs can be cut to ensure the longevity of their business. In many cases, this comes in the form of automating as much of the day-to-day operating as possible. Even online businesses can struggle, as shown when Amazon suffered delays to its deliveries when coronavirus spread in its warehouse.
However, automating systems and using robotic in businesses takes time, so job losses are not a quick fix. Also, more people will be needed to run these new systems, so there should be more opportunities created too. With the work required to set the business up so it can automate a lot of its processes, layoffs may not have been the wisest choice.