A survey carried out by recruitment consultants Kendrick Rose earlier this month indicated that one in ten workers in the Island has been made redundant since the start of the outbreak.
And the firm’s managing director Shelley Kendrick said that she expected as many as a third of the workforce could find itself unemployed before the crisis subsides. She added that job opportunities had generally tightened during the crisis with employers and employees both ‘concerned about what the future holds’.
‘The recruitment market is about 80% down. I think at this moment in time if people are still employed they are holding on to that job,’ she said.
‘And the majority of people just aren’t looking to recruit at this time due to the uncertainty.
‘There are some job opportunities out there at the moment, such as in retail and delivery, but many people may not want to do them.
‘We could be in a situation where a third of our workforce will be unemployed and how do you deal with that?’
Kendrick Rose’s recent survey also found that just 61% of workers intended to stay with their employer once the crisis was over, while only 41% of self-employed business owners confirmed they wanted to continue post-coronavirus.
The firm is currently offering a free 30-minute consultation service for firms who are considering redundancies.
Ms Kendrick said that experience of the last recession had taught her that many businesses need to improve their practices for laying off staff.
‘People are going to need to be careful about how they deal with redundancies because it will affect their reputation once this is all over,’ she said.
‘When I started this business ten years ago it was during a recession, people were made redundant and were treated terribly.
‘Good staff would be taken into a room and told they no longer had a job and would not even have the opportunity to say goodbye to their colleagues.
‘Firms need to realise how that will make them be viewed as an employer when we come out the other side of this.’
More details about Kendrick Rose’s consultation services can be found online at kendrickrose.com.
