So…. I know I am dating myself a little but back in the 80’s former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Mike Tyson said “Everyone Has a Plan Until You Get Punched in the Face”. We have all been punched in the face, and the gut and any plans we use to have all gotten thrown out the window. We are being assaulted on all fronts. A global pandemic, economic crisis, jobs and unemployment crisis, a rise of racial injustice, political unrest, misinformation and disinformation campaigns. Honestly, there is no playbook for the time we are in and, there is no end in sight. Many of these issues are not independent of each other, they are interrelated.

The Economy

An economic recovery depends upon how companies manage the public health crisis. Other countries around the world have had better success controlling the virus because they had national programs to combat the Coronavirus. In the United States, we do not. Because of this, schools, jobs and combating public health are so uncertain. At the beginning of the pandemic, economists talked about a V shaped recovery. This is where we incur a sharp decline and then a rapid rebound.

A few months ago, this type of recovery was changed to a U-shaped recovery. This is where we have a sharp decline followed by a hovering on bottom and then a sharp rebound. Then about a month ago, the economists changed their forecasts again projecting a prolonged U-shaped recovery. This is where we stay on the bottom for a considerable length of time before rebounding. Just yesterday, the latest forecasts projected a jagged recovery, which is one characterized by many starts, stops, declines, repeated over and over again. The reality is….. No one really knows. It is almost impossible to predict anything that is more than a few months out. So many things can change.

Schools

Over the next few weeks schools will be opening. Not all of them will offer the same type of education. Some will be 100% remote, some will be a hybrid approach, some will have alternate schedules, and some say they are opening 100% in full, in person. Remember what Mike Tyson said, “ Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face’. If students do not adhere to social distancing and wearing masks, the virus in communities all over the country and around the world will surge, causing more lockdowns and shutdowns, then causing students to do remote learning.

As of this week, 53% of all students are attending 100% virtual school for the coming term. If the virus surges, more and more students will be participating in remote learning. If (and I feel when) this happens, parents must me able and allowed to work from home. Companies will need to offer more remote jobs and most of all, job seekers NEED to start pursuing 100% remote jobs right now. Those are the types of jobs that are currently being posted. Those are the ones that companies are hiring for. Office space and occupancy rates are dropping along with rents.

Companies are realizing that remote work is growing and here to stay. I have been doing remote work over the past 25 years. Before the word “Remote” was even a word. Back then they called it telecommuting. I have run 3 global companies. Two of which were completely virtual, and one was converted from brick and mortar to 100% virtual. I have had staff around the world, been on over 100 interviews, personally reviewed over 500,000 resumes, a hiring manager hiring hundreds and a global recruiter placing hundreds more around the world. I have seen remote work, go from a fad, to a trend to a movement to overnight, the new normal.

Office space vacancy rates and rents are dropping. Remote work is here to stay. There has been 20 straight weeks of more than 1,000,000 or more job losses. Companies revenues are down. It may be some time before companies rehire all the workers that have been furloughed or laid off. One of the largest expenses companies have is labor. This is something that a company has control of. Until revenues come back, hiring may remain stagnant. In the past month, the rate of increase in job gains has dramatically slowed. This is primarily due to the surge of the virus. It is important to note that the gains that we have seen in job growth can be so quickly erased if there are more surges in the virus.

On an extremely positive note, I am seeing new jobs being posted each and every day by companies all around the world. So, companies are hiring. They are however, taking longer to hire because they too are uncertain of both the short and long-term outlooks. Three of my clients have received job offers in the past few weeks, several more have secured interview and another just landed a job at Google.

The jobs numbers and unemployment rates are moving so quickly that it is almost impossible to get an accurate record. This trend will be continuing for many months to come along with older workers in their 50’s and 60’s leaving the labor force. Historically there are two times of the year when new jobs being posted and hiring is slow. The first is the last few weeks in December and the second is the last few weeks of August.

There are 4 kinds of job seekers right now. The ones that are currently out of work, ones that are currently employed but are looking for new positions, the ones that may lose their jobs in the coming months and those that are looking for remote work. After Labor day and in the first few weeks of September, children are back in school and executives are back at work. Hiring will pick up. But, you must prepare. You must develop a comprehensive job search strategy (Resumes, Cover Letters, Job Board Registrations, Customized Alerts and Updating and Optimizing your LinkedIn profile.

I strongly recommend that your primary focus should be pursuing remote job opportunities. This is where the hiring is. Securing these types of jobs will give you more options, increase the number of opportunities exponentially and better help you ride out the storm. Is the Job market difficult? Absolutely!

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