New Hope for White-Collar Job Seekers? It Depends on the Job

Manpower’s reach extends much further down the corporate organization chart than high-price recruiters like Mr. Banerji, who focuses on executive talent. But like him, the company is seeing a desire to fill technology positions like software and application developers, as well as information technology and security analysts.

About one in four jobs listed at Manpower has no location recorded, indicating it can be done remotely. That’s up from one in 10 in January. The top remote roles include software developer and customer help desk personnel, according to Ms. Frankiewicz.

She, too, views the apparel industry as a laggard. “It has been very slow to recover,” she said. “I expect it to start coming back, but it hasn’t yet.”

The wave of national protests after the killing of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis has also intensified corporate attention on the need for diversity, said Krishnan Rajagopalan, the chief executive of Heidrick Struggles, a global executive search and leadership advisory firm.

“We’ve been seeing a push for diversity for a while,” he said. “But there’s no question you’re hearing about it a lot more in the past month. It’s more than just placement. It’s about creating a culture of inclusivity.”

For some workers, it has been a matter of two steps forward, one step back in recent weeks. Alan Berman, an architect, had a staff of 14, including him, at his New York firm before the pandemic. Business was so good he considered bringing in a partner.

By April, he had laid off all but three members of his staff. Work has begun to trickle back during June, and now he’s up to a staff of eight. When will the remaining workers be called back? “Not for a long time,” he said. “I have no idea when and if I will be able to bring back any more employees.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/business/economy/coronavirus-job-hunting.html