Over the last year, many companies have been able to use the pandemic as a positive for their growth. We take a look into why these industries and businesses have been able to thrive during a global pandemic and provide jobs for those in need.
With the UK announcing the national lockdown on March 23rd, the normal working routine was changed completely; with a lot of workplaces closing it’s doors temporarily. Employees either began to work from home, entered the furlough scheme – as brought in by Rishi Sunak or were unfortunately let go, with the lockdown lasting longer than originally anticipated, it resulted in companies being forced to adapt to the situation.
So let’s look at some of those industries and companies who managed to not only survive the pandemic but grow through it:
Amazon
Amazon are one success story that managed to thrive during the lockdown, with online retail booming during 2020. After creating 10,000 permanent jobs in the UK and giving them an extra £2 per hour pay rise, Amazon still recorded quarterly profits of £3.9bn (40% rise to the prior year) – which led to founder Jeff Bezos to become the first person whose Net Worth exceeded $200bn.
With many people experiencing redundancy and being negatively impacted by the pandemic, Amazon are certainly doing their part in keeping food on the table for families globally.
They created 75,000 jobs in the US and Canada, whilst opening more centres in the UK offering a wide range of jobs including; engineering, fashion and video production.
With the ongoing job roles up for grabs, this will take their total workforce to 55,000 in the UK by the end of the year.
"We're proud of the frontline roles we offer across Amazon. We also know that they will be a stepping stone for some in their career journey." - John Boumphrey, Amazon's UK country manager.
Tech
Technology has also had a huge impact on working conditions over the last 12 months, with platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom becoming a staple product with company's repertoire. As of April 2021, Microsoft Teams has around 145 million daily users; compared to only 13 million in July 2019.
The popularity of these platforms rising, along side many of the big players in the tech market, moving to cloud based platforms meant it was just as easy to carry out normal daily activities and communications with your colleagues from the space of your home.
Having the ability to go remote with the opportunities to continue hiring, it enabled companies within the tech industry to broaden their talent horizons.
With the major working culture shift within businesses, companies have started to value the talent of the employee over their location, which is why businesses are becoming a lot more comfortable with remote or hybrid working. This is something we've noticed ourselves, being a recruitment group based in Bournemouth, a lot of the incoming roles are now remote.
Since the industry is becoming more diverse, there's been a 149% rise in the amount of remote working technology jobs that have been posted since March 2020.
E-Commerce
Many e-commerce companies like ASOS and Klarna have also grown exponentially during lockdown, with their orders growing dramatically by 200%. Throughout the lockdown, for retail companies; and with money being tight for many, companies like Klarna reap the rewards by being able to offer small monthly payments for clothing stores online and now in-store.
As a direct knock-on effect of this, Hermes have been able to create 10,500 jobs since the beginning of lockdown to cope with the extra demand in home deliveries. They have created 1,500 full time jobs with the additional 9,000 jobs for freelance couriers, as well as investing £30m into expanding it's operations, including buying vans and even opening depots.
"- it is important that we have the right infrastructure and people in place to support this (high demand). This is good news for the many people who have sadly had their income affected and we are pleased to be able to support the UK economy with so many jobs at this time." - Martijn de Lange, Chief Executive of Hermes UK.
Retail
These weren't the only areas that helped to provide work for many people. With retail feeling the affects of Covid-19, supermarkets were able to remain open and create jobs for people in need.
Supermarkets like Tesco, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl etc, embarked on a hiring spree to be able to meet the high demand and needs of the customers. Around 30,000 jobs were created in this industry and they're still employing new staff whilst opening new stores around the UK.
Aldi had created 4,000 permanent roles as well as a further 5,000 temporary positions at their stores and distribution centres whilst opening an average of one store per week between March-December 2020.
"We want to keep supporting our local communities through these uncertain time, with access to groceries and wages to keep their families going, and we feel we're in a position to do so through the creation of these new roles." - Kelly Stokes, Recruitment Director, Aldi.
This led to their rival store Lidl, to open an extra 25 stores in the space of six months, resulting in thousands of job opportunities. Morrisons hired over 20,000 members of staff and extended working hours for many in order to cope with the extra demand for personal shopping and food deliveries.
Despite the pandemic, there have been many companies that have flourished during these difficult times and will continue to do so with lockdown's easing. As employment rates continue to rise with the success of many businesses thriving during tough times, the economy will begin to get back on track and move towards pre-covid numbers.