Report: The Effects of Coronavirus Pandemic on the UK Job Industry

This report examines the significant impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the UK job industry, highlighting the economic downturn, increased unemployment, and challenges faced by various sectors. It discusses the disproportionate impact on self-employed workers, the sudden shift to remote working, and the advantages and disadvantages associated with it. The report also outlines the measures taken by the UK government to support employment, including the furlough scheme and job retention initiatives. Industries like tourism, aviation, and professional services were critically affected, while hospitality and pharma managed to sustain. The analysis concludes that the pandemic has led to significant cost-cutting measures, job losses, and reduced scales, emphasizing the need for continued support and adaptation in the UK job market.

EFFECTS OF
CORONAVIRUS ON UK
JOB INDUSTRY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
COVID-19 impacts on the job industry.......................................................................................3
Impacts of Covid-19 on job industry of UK................................................................................3
Self employed workers in UK......................................................................................................3
Ability to work from home..........................................................................................................4
Rise in the Remote Working........................................................................................................5
Measures taken by UK government for employment .................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
The coronavirus that was first detected in China, now the pandemic is spreading and
influencing all round the world. The impact is huge in terms of costs to countries and the
recovery to it does not seem closer.
This report shall highlight the impact of coronavirus on the UK job industry. The
statistics of UK reveals that its job sector has been hit bad as much as decade- high and they
believe the worst is yet to come. The article below shall include the various places in UK and
how severely are they impacted, the various job sectors critically facing challenges like self
employment, tech savvy requirements for those having work from home and the rise of remote
working.
MAIN BODY
COVID-19 impacts on the job industry
Covid-19 has lead to huge fall in the economy of several countries badly hitting its
revenues and incomes, massively increasing its cost and slowing down the operations of
businesses. Among all other losses the major one is considered to be the loss of jobs by people
following the crisis. The unemployment levels have increased severely and the priorities now are
of reviving the workforce and their families (Griffith, Levell, and Stroud, 2020).
Impacts of Covid-19 on job industry of UK
The impact of pandemic has been seen worldwide including UK, whose economy has
taken a sudden downturn wherein the job industry has been alarming. Due to the lock downs for
long periods, social distancing norms of the government, economic crisis etc. has lead to the
cutting of jobs posing more workload to existing employees and the lowering down the pay
scale. The epidemic has brought sufferings to many people residing in UK employed at different
places and in variety of sectors like some are self employed, some are having work from home
and the remaining incudes the rise in remote working(Uğur, . and Akbıyık,, 2020).
Self employed workers in UK
Self employed workers in UK are a major concern as they are generally lower paid ones
and higher risk of the economic slowdown is posed on them. The shocks faced by them are a
serious concern for the government and so policies are being formulated accordingly to protect
them. The self employed population is disproportionately located but majorly are concentrated in

the North and Midlands of UK. London consists of approximately 20% of such self employed
people whereas talking about others there is not much much of working population as it only
possesses about 15% of total working population(Singh, and et.al. 2020).
There can be many advantages in respect to self employment that are enjoyed by the workforce
but surely the corona pandemic has left such group with serious consequences. The drawbacks as
faced by them could be namely they are being restrained from receiving certain employee
benefits like that in respect of furlough scheme or the sick pay etc. It has also negatively
impacted all the freelancers in the industry as the businesses began terminating their contracts
and they began to loose several opportunities due the declining graph of the economy.
The various reports generated shows that this sector is most vulnerably suffered as bad as loss of
livelihood among them. To lower down the adversities the government has taken certain measure
s like the Self Employment Support Scheme in which grants are being given which does not
stand repayable. It shall be up to 70% of the trading profits it used to earn in the past 3
years(Kaushal, and Srivastava, 2020).
Ability to work from home
Working from home is also one of the results of the pandemic as seen by the workforce
of UK, which can prove to be challenging for many people. It poses lot of threats like face to
face interaction with the colleagues is difficult, the infrastructure of sitting in one room with
support and guidance of seniors shall be missed, tech savvy employees is must for doing work
from home. Technology can be a saviour but only for those who are technology friendly.
Almost overnight such working pattern changed for the workforce of UK, where now out
of five people four of them were work from home. Over 80% of UK are service based industry
where now offices are empty and the professional services are being provided from home. This
drastic change somewhere negatively impacted the the productivity and the employment levels in
UK(Huang, , and et.al. 2020.).
There are certain advantages that are there in working from home which has benefited the
employees namely flexibility and convenience, better work life balance, lesser need for holidays
ultimately resulting in higher productivity, financial benefit, motivation, and overall well being
of the employees. Compared to the positives there also certain drawbacks that the workers are
facing which are controlling and monitoring operations is not possible, team work and leadership

concepts fade away, isolated staff and lesser human resource development etc(Gössling., Scott, .
and Hall,2020.).
Rise in the Remote Working
Working remotely initially posed challenges but now many workers have accepted the
switch and has embraced the culture of remote working. Initially employees resisted but now
they are working effectively in it and now 84% employees of UK are comfortable in working
with it.
The challenge is if the travel restrictions ease out how will the workforce return back to the
office. The UK government is trying its best to advice the work population to return back to the
office post lock down as the mental health of the employee remotely is getting affected.
With the winding up of the furlough scheme in October by the end of the year there will be
around 7% of unemployment. Low wage workers, insecure workers, contract workers,
freelancers are the ones who are sure to get unemployed this year.
Measures taken by UK government for employment
1) The furlough employees are paid by the government
2) JRS is allotted to employers who are not able to maintain their workforce
3) Eligible employers can avail for the grant to HMRC
4) Schemes announced for those who aged between 16 to 24 years who are at a risk of long
term unemployment
5) Kickstart placement is an initiative that is taken by the government in which they shall
help in placements of those who are unemployed and also shall bear the cost of wages for
about 6 months
6) Statutory sick pay refund shall be taken small businesses as refunds from government
CONCLUSION
With the reference of this project report it can be observed that corona pandemic has
impacted the job sector of UK massively. It has lead to tremendous impact on the economy in
terms of it slowing down leaving the businesses distorted. It could be highlighted that the self
employed sector was majorly hit pass in the corona times as their sheer opportunities were lost
and survival was difficult.

Critically the industries that got impacted were the tourism , aviation, professional services
industry etc. The ones that managed to still earn were the hospitality, pharma industries. The
share market was also hit bad in numbers, the shares of various businesses crashed down
ultimately reducing its potential investors. The growth of businesses has become stagnant
thereby forcing the industries to cut down its costs. The cost cutting lead to an alarming effect on
the job structure as many jobs are removed by the company and else if not removed the scale
reduced forcing poor livelihood.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Griffith, R., Levell, P. and Stroud, R., 2020. The Impact of COVID‐19 on Share Prices in the
UK. Fiscal Studies. 41(2). pp.363-369.
Uğur, N. G. and Akbıyık, A., 2020. Impacts of COVID-19 on global tourism industry: A cross-
regional comparison. Tourism Management Perspectives. 36. p.100744.
Singh, S., and et.al. 2020. Impact of COVID-19 on logistics systems and disruptions in food
supply chain. International Journal of Production Research, pp.1-16.
Kaushal, V. and Srivastava, S., 2020. Hospitality and tourism industry amid COVID-19
pandemic: Perspectives on challenges and learnings from India. International Journal of
Hospitality Management. 92. p.102707.
Huang, A., and et.al. 2020. Understanding the impact of COVID-19 intervention policies on the
hospitality labor market. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 91. p.102660.
Gössling, S., Scott, D. and Hall, C. M., 2020. Pandemics, tourism and global change: a rapid
assessment of COVID-19. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, pp.1-20.
Online
Covid 19 in the United Kingdom. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-in-
the-united-kingdom-assessing-jobs-at-risk-and-the-impact-on-people-and-places#>
UK hospitality and retail jobs in the firing line as coronavirus hits. 2020. [Online]. Available
through: <https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/uk-hospitality-and-
retail-jobs-in-the-firing-line-as-coronavirus-hits/74623229>
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