Success For A Working Future Through COVID19

I heard a shocking stat this week that has been on my mind. Did you know at the end of March the number of people receiving jobseeker type income support in South Australia was 78,000? That is a lot of families and people affected. But what has really impacted me was at the end of May 2020 this number had grown to over 126,000. That is over 70% increase in 3 months!

We know that this is because of COVID19 and the Prime Minister’s announcement that the JobKeeper subsidy will end in September will have further impact with the number of unemployed people increasing again. It has been described as the second cliff. I can understand why the government can’t continue with this level of financial support but still it has me worried about the sheer number of people who will be affected.

As an organisation that believes “everyone deserves a working future” it does feel like we have to do something to help people to transition to a new career and/or job.

Career guidance is an effective strategy that we can use at this time and make it available to people who may not normally receive this kind of support. A meta-analysis of research to the effectiveness of career development services by ACCELL* has shown that people who are given individual career development support are 2.67 times more likely to secure a job. ACCELL’s analysis is a summary of 47 independent research summaries which included 9575 individual participants, so it is valid.

ACCELL also found that “encouraging proactivity” increases successful employment by 5.88 times. Given that the labour market will be highly competitive, I believe proactivity will be a critical factor for jobseekers. Why you may ask. According to Wikipedia (all truthful source), proactivity describes a person who is taking responsibility for his or her life, rather than looking for causes in outside circumstances or other people.

As the labour market changes and adapts post COVID19, it is essential that jobseekers have the skills and confidence to shift with it. This will include being able to translate transferable skills to a range of industries and be able to tell an employer how they align. If you are feeling unconfident and stressed about money, this is not an easy task.

At Employment Options we are revising our career development support to meet this demand. Over the next few weeks we will offer individual career counselling and group workshops at very affordable rates.

Our career practitioners are experts in job search interventions that target behaviour like proactivity that result in getting a job. Please get in touch if this sounds like the help you need.

 

* Australian Collaboratory for Career Employment & Learning for Living