Labor market changed by coronavirus: experts

The coronavirus epidemic has diametrically changed the labor market, employers are holding back recruitment en masse, the Lewiatan Confederation indicated on Monday. According to experts, declines in HR services herald the end of the employee market era.

As indicated in the release, the labor market has changed dramatically as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, which is reflected in the second quarter of 2020 by the results of companies belonging to the Polish HR Forum, a member of the Lewiatan Confederation.

"Employers are holding back recruitment processes en masse, which reflects a 31 percent decline in the sales of these services by PFHR member companies compared to the previous quarter," the release reads.

As noted in the statement by Piotr Dziedzic from the board of the Polish HR Forum, in many industries the first reaction of employers to the coronavirus was to freeze all recruitment decisions.

"We still have industries that recruit: the entire IT sector, logistics and distribution, shared service centers, but it will take us a long time to return to the pre-crisis situation," he said.

According to the Lewiatan Confederation, the number of temporary workers has decreased by 25 percent compared to the same period last year. While comparing the data from quarter to quarter, this decrease is not so drastic and amounts to 5 percent. Unfortunately it is accompanied by a significant, 25 percent decrease in the number of hours worked by these employees.

(PAP)