EMPLOYEES that lost their jobs during the pandemic are mostly young and short tenured, according to a job market survey issued by online work portal JobStreet.com.

Among employees that were either permanently retrenched or temporarily not working, 76% were not full-time employees and 79% had worked for their employer for less than six months.

Most of these employees were between 18 to 24 years old and earning less than P20,000 each month.

Employees between 35 to 44 years old were the least affected by permanent and temporary lay offs. Other elements of the profile for comparatively secure jobs included organizations with more than 500 employees. The industries and job functions determined to be safest were information technology, banking, and medical professions.

Jobstreet’s COVID-19 Job Report is based on a survey of 2,569 jobseekers and 314 employers in May.

Over half of job candidates reported being affected by the pandemic, with 17% permanently retrenched and 43% temporarily losing work.

“But we fear that the inevitable will happen and that because of the growing and the extension of this pandemic, the 43% will still be affected by this crisis,” Jobstreet Country Manager Philip Gioca said in an online news conference on Wednesday.

The hardest hit sectors are tourism and travel, food and beverage, hospitality, architecture and construction, and education. Most of those who lost their jobs were working in Central Luzon.

Majority of the organizations that reorganized their workforce have been operating for more than a decade.

Workplace requirements have shifted to digital, with 74% of organizations requiring staff to work from home. Almost half of employees that work from home said that they have been working for longer hours.

More than half or 55% of employers reported that the pandemic had a negative impact on their head count, with 49% freezing hiring, 12% temporarily laying off staff, and 7% permanently firing workers.

Remuneration was also affected, with 30% of employers suspending salary increases, 15% reducing bonuses, and 11% reducing salaries.

A fifth suspended promotions, while 24% asked staff to take unpaid leave.

On the workers’ side, 22% reported reduced salaries. Among them, more than half experienced a more than 30% reduction in salary. A fifth saw reductions of more than half.

In the next six months, the most in-demand jobs will be in accounting, sales, information technology, human resources, and engineering. While a quarter of employers said they are likely to hire those who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, 70% said they are neither more or less likely to hire them.

Mr. Gioca said there are more than 30,000 jobs advertised on the company’s website.

The unemployment rate surged to a 15-year high of 17.7% in April, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. This translates to 7.25 million jobless Filipinos, three times more than the 2.27 million recorded in April 2019.

Jobstreet.com and the Civil Service Commission launched an online career fair offering more than 10,000 government jobs from 700 agencies. Almost 30% of available jobs are in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) region. — Jenina P. Ibañez

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR