Reflecting on 2020. What a year it’s been!

2020 is a year that we will all certainly remember. One that no one could have predicted, but a year that we have all learnt a lot from.

Back in March, as a nation, we endured a 12-week lockdown to try and reduce the impact of the pandemic. We all did our bit to stay at home and abide by government guidelines. However, this created a wider impact on society and business.

Unfortunately, many people and businesses have been impacted by the effects of Coronavirus. The hospitality, retail and travel industries were affected the most. Whilst digital-based businesses such as e-commerce and online grocery orders saw a boom in profits.

So, we take a look back at the year by reflecting on 2020 and what happened to the job market and the working lifestyle.

Reflecting on 2020

The Job Market

At the beginning of 2020 in January, the job market was at its peak. The employment rate was at a joint record high. According to the Office of National Statistics, people over the age of 16 in paid work was at 76.5%. A further statistic showed that the number of women in full-time work had increased by 10.3% since November 2015.

Little did we know that this would soon be heavily impacted by the events that were to come.  

Towards the end of March was when we saw the lockdown introduced. Shortly after, the effects of the pandemic began to arise. Chancellor of the Exchequer and someone who quickly became a household name, Rishi Sunak, established the furlough scheme and support to those who were self-employed. This saw the number of employees on the UK payroll to decrease by 730,000, compared to March. Unfortunately, this led to a decrease in employment rates and the increase in redundancy levels, affecting those aged 16-24 the most.

Non-essential shops were forced to close and the hospitality industry was told to shut their doors. As a result, around 7.5 million people were temporarily away from work. However, by June those industries saw the largest number of employees return to work from furlough. Additionally, the job market saw a record number of people who changed their job due to redundancy or dismissal. Contrastingly, the number of people who changed jobs due to resignation was at its lowest since March 2009.

Although a vast number of livelihoods have been affected by the pandemic, things are looking up. As restrictions have begun to be lifted, more people have returned to work and the number of hours worked by employees have begun to recover, slowly. Here at JasperRose, we have also seen the number of finance-related roles pick up steadily since August.

Working Lifestyle

The way we now work has seen a large shift this year. From 5-day weeks in the office, to fully working from home. It may have taken a few months to get used to but for some, working remotely will be the future way of business. For the majority, a ‘hybrid’ way of working involving a mix of being in the office and at home will become popular.

There is still a lot of uncertainty around what the future will look like in terms of the working location. Flexibility is going to be an important factor for employees and an area for employers to consider. No doubt you would have seen or even answered the question on LinkedIn on where you would prefer to work from home, in the office, or a mix of both? Slack, the online communication platform for businesses, found that out of the 4,700 workers questioned, 72% would like a mix of both. Therefore, business operations may become more virtual and online in 2021, so don’t say goodbye to those Teams or Zoom meetings just yet!

Planning for 2021

Whilst there is still uncertainty around how 2021 will unfold, working from home and virtual events will most likely continue. We hope to see a relaxation of the rules and businesses to open their doors once again.

Although this year has been a challenging one and it may seem that 2021 will follow suit, setting new goals both personally and professionally 2021 is a great way to create motivation and focus for the year to come. Reflecting on 2020 can be a great way to do this as it will help you to decide what you would like to achieve in 2021.

Take a look at these tools that will help you to plan and achieve your 2021 goals.

From everyone at the team at JasperRose, we wish you a very happy holiday and a fabulous New Year. We are still open over the festive period. Please do get in touch if you have any questions or would like to speak to someone regarding your job search.