New way tourism and hospitality workers can get jobs in Australia during coronavirus crisis

Tourism and hospitality workers out of a job since the coronavirus pandemic in Australia can consider a career pivot into one of eight in-demand roles.

Tourism and hospitality workers out of a job since the coronavirus pandemic are urged to consider a career pivot into one of eight in-demand roles.

The Department of Education, Skills and Employment identified checkout operators, pharmacy sales assistants, shelf fillers, commercial cleaners, food and drink factory workers, storepersons, truck drivers and packers as sharing transferable skills with workers in the accommodation and food services industry.

A department spokeswoman said unemployed Australians could use a new Skills Match tool on its JobOutlook website to identify skills they had built in past jobs then discover other jobs that used those skills.

“Skills Match shows that people employed in the largest five occupations in the accommodation and food services sector (waiter, kitchenhand, bar attendant/baristas, chef and general sales assistant) may have the necessary skills to transition into jobs likely to be in demand in the essential services sectors,” she said.

Essential services sectors included supermarkets and grocery stores; pharmaceutical retailing; road freight transport; postal and courier delivery services; grocery, liquor and tobacco product wholesaling; fuel retailing; pharmaceutical and toiletry goods wholesaling; pharmaceutical and medicinal product manufacturing; cleaning compound and toiletry preparation manufacturing; and pump, compressor, heating and ventilation equipment manufacturing.

Workers in the hospitality industry can transfer their skills.

Hospitality jobs platform Barcats just launched an initiative to connect out-of-work hospitality staff to jobs in other industries that are still in demand.

Jobs posted in the last few days included cleaners and cooks at aged care facilities, customer service roles, convenience store roles and warehouse roles.

Between February and March, Barcats data revealed the number of hospitality staff looking for work in Sydney and Brisbane increased by more than 25 per cent, while those in Melbourne increased by 41 per cent.

Across the workforce, the Australian employment landscape was changing rapidly.

An analysis of real time hiring activity by the Employment department revealed most capital cities had experienced a decline in roles since the COVID-19 outbreak, particularly in public administration, education and training, manufacturing, and hospitality.

However, hiring had increased in all capital regions for health and logistics workers.

“The data shows a strong growth in health and personal service jobs, particularly for physicians, registered nurses and nurse support workers, with 900 more hospital jobs in March compared to February,” the spokeswoman said.

She said the department’s employer liaison network had observed demand for workers in manufacturing (medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, food and groceries), warehousing (distribution centres, transport and logistics), retail (supermarkets, pharmacies, other food outlets), hospitals and care facilities, IT and call centres, mining, and agriculture/harvest.

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A survey by the non-for-profit Young Presidents Organisation (YPO), based on the March responses of 2750 business leaders including 111 Australians, revealed nine in 10 Australian chief executives were expecting to reduce their headcounts over the coming six months.

More than a quarter (29 per cent) forecast at least a 10 per cent drop in workers by this time next year.

One in 20 expected more than a 20 per cent decrease.

YPO spokesman and Thought Patrol managing director Mark Bilton said most industries would feel the flow-on effect of economic slowdown.

“Companies and industries that have a high online transaction rate and presence, or are able to pivot quickly, will do better than those that don’t,” he said.

“(Online conferencing tool) Zoom is an obvious winner.”

READ MORE EMPLOYMENT NEWS IN THE CAREERS SECTION OF SATURDAY’S THE COURIER-MAIL, THE HERALD SUN, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AND THE ADVERTISER.

Originally published as New way tourism and hospitality workers can get jobs in Australia during coronavirus crisis