Natural immunity? These 8 industries know how to shrug off bad news
When bad news hits, how do we react? The latest update of LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index paints an intriguing picture.
Look at the totality of the U.S. economy, and it’s clear that this summer’s disappointing news about job creation, inflation and the 20-month battle against the COVID-19 pandemic has been taking its toll. People’s confidence in their employers has been slipping steadily, as seen in the WCI’s surveys of more than 31,000 people from July 1 through September 30.?
But not everyone has succumbed. In the survey’s drill-down analysis of 50 major industries, eight sectors seem impervious to gloomy headlines. People in those fields were more ebullient than average at the start of the summer -- and they have stayed so for the duration.
As the chart below shows, this form of “natural immunity” has run particularly strong in fields such as computer software, accounting, or architecture and planning. All are in-demand specialties that have ridden out the pandemic’s ups and downs relatively well, showing that it’s possible to thrive in remote or hybrid settings.?
In all three of those knowledge-intensive fields, people’s confidence in their employers, during the July to September period, registered at +50 or higher. (The overall scale ranges from -100 to +100. By contrast, the Workforce Confidence survey found that such optimism for all respondents slipped to +34 as of late September, down from +39 in early July.?
Meanwhile, two manufacturing sectors -- semiconductors (+47) and medical devices (+47) --? also emerged during the summer as fields with unique growth opportunities and considerable immunity from the economy’s overall jitters.??
In the chip industry, prices have been surging, reflecting both a rise in demand and the emergence of production shortages. While that development has been reported mostly as bad news for big customers like the auto industry, it also signals a new prosperity of a sort for people working in semiconductors.
Demand is accelerating in the medical device industry, too, with particularly rapid growth in robotics and wireless, internet-enabled products.?
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Hospitality -- which was extremely hard-hit by 2020’s pandemic-related restrictions on everyday activity -- looks to have regained its footing, too. Hotel occupancy rates haven’t quite bounced back to their 2019 level, according to STR, an industry tracking? firm, but they’re far closer than they were.?
Trends for restaurants are similar, too. As many parts of the United States decouple their pandemic-fighting strategies from safety-mask requirements, that may contribute to the hospitality sector’s belief that better times lie ahead.
At the other extreme, confidence during the July-to-September period slipped considerably in industries that are sensitive to traditional economic cycles. These include chemicals (a 19-point drop, to +29), machinery (a 17-point slump, to +44) and building materials (down 16 points, to +44).?
Also under pressure is practically every aspect of education, a field that has faced unique challenges keeping classrooms working smoothly during the pandemic. Confidence was low at the start of July and continued to slide, in areas such as primary and secondary education (down 9 points to +18), higher education (tumbling 7 points, to +19), and education management (off 5 points, to +19 as well).
Even some high-paying, knowledge-intensive fields where confidence was strong in the spring are looking a bit more ragged now. These include law practices (down 23 points, to +27), staffing and recruiting (off 19 points, to +36), and marketing/advertising (down 17 points, to +34). These may be areas where unexpected delays in arranging a full-fledged return to the workplace have created fresh worries.
Methodology
LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey distributed to members via email every two weeks. Roughly 5,000 U.S.-based members respond to each wave. Members are randomly sampled and must be opted into research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners and retirees are excluded from analysis so we can get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyze data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy. Data is weighted by engagement level, to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership & overall market population are not accounted for.
Alexandra Gunther and Adam Cohen from LinkedIn Market Research contributed to this article.
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3 年It's in the heart of the strong
Career Reinvention and Development Strategist, Employment Author, Interview Prep Coach
3 年Aside from shifts in the top companies hiring, the uncertainty of the covid pandemic – while causing many the loss of their jobs with the onslaught of these shifts – it has also exposed many to working independently – performing consulting and freelance work – to make a living. Which can affect those companies hiring. A recent Gartner analysis “shows that organizations will continue to ?expand their use of contingent workers to maintain more flexibility in workforce management post-COVID-19, and will consider introducing other job models they have seen during the pandemic, such as talent sharing and 80% pay for 80% work”. “Our research” says Gartner, “finds that 32% of organizations are replacing full-time employees with contingent workers as a cost-saving measure,” says Kropp. “While gig workers offer employers greater workforce management flexibility, HR leaders will need to evaluate how performance management systems apply to these workers and determine whether they will be eligible for the same benefits as their full-time peers.”
Phlebotomist @ VA
3 年Ok here goes, I was an employee at Bioreference Until I was told that all of my hard work and dedication was not as important as me getting the vaccination??. I kept my ground and my choice and I lost my position as a Phlebotomist. I have worked for Bioreference on two different occasions , I have nothing bad to say about them I love this company and I worked harder than I have ever worked in my life at this company?. I have one question for anyone who cares to reply. I have been doing this for 18 years and I would like to know after bio reference terminated A great employee for not having a vaccination how am I ever supposed to work again in this industry? Why have they done this to me and I have only given This Company every bit of energy I had every day running a PSC Alone and never complain?ed. I went home tired and slept just to do it again the next day because I love what I do.? My question is am I the only one out there that it is feeling so sad and lonely that Bioreference company literally ruined my résumé over this?? Please tell me what I have done to deserve this??
Laurence J. Cohen - Attorney-At-Law
3 年Online businesses are doing better than ever!