Over half of workers want to reskill and retrain for a new line of work following COVID-19 and its impact on the job market.
This is according to CV-Library, who found that 59 per cent of UK workers are willing to reskill and retrain in order to find a new line of work, due to the lack of jobs in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The job board found that 52 per cent of workers wish to do this to make themselves more employable, 32 per cent feel they cannot find a job in their current sector and 32 per cent want an occupation with better job security.
However, under a third (30 per cent) are doing this to get a more meaningful job and 29 per cent to obtain a job with a higher salary.
The industry with the highest amount of individuals who want to reskill for a new career is the charity sector with 92 per cent of them stating this. Customer services came in second at 81 per cent, then tourism at 75 per cent, hospitality at 74 per cent and manufacturing at 69 per cent.
Charity professionals have been applying for work in administration, social care and the education sectors, while workers in hospitality have been looking for opportunities in construction and administration.
Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library, said:
We’ve seen lots of stories in the press about professionals who have completely switched up their careers during lockdown; and it’s fascinating to learn how people have adapted. The job market is going to be impacted by the pandemic for a long time, especially as we are now officially in a recession. Going forward, employers will need to be more open to hiring people from different sectors and professionals must be more open to opportunities outside of their traditional remit.
Naturally, certain industries have been hit a lot harder than others and this is reflected in our findings. For this reason, professionals in key sectors have had no choice but to consider finding a job in a completely new line of work. Over the next 12 months, we expect to see this trend continue and will be monitoring it closely to see what else emerges.
In order to obtain these results, CV-Library spoke to 1,700 UK employees.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
