After COVID-19 hit Australian shores, employers immediately stopped hiring, according to Goulburn-based recruitment specialist Kylie Gardner.
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But now, the signs are that business is getting back to normal, with a steep increase in employers looking to put people back to work.
"At the start there was a four week period where people just stopped recruiting," said Ms Gardner, an account manager at Think Recruitment, based at The Collective on Auburn Street.
"But in the last couple of weeks, there's been an increase in inquiries.
"There's now a high number of employers looking for people with skills for permanent positions."
"There's now a high number of employers looking for people with skills for permanent positions."
- Kylie Gardner
The bad news for employers, though, is that there are not yet as many potential workers stepping up to the plate.
"A lot of people are comfortable staying at home at the moment, with what they're getting (on JobKeeper), maybe because they're concerned about going to work during the coronavirus period," said Ms Gardner.
"The upside is that the applications from employees that we do have are very high quality, because they're the ones still concerned about their careers."
Ms Gardner said that the initial impact on the workforce was borne predominantly by casual workers.
"Most casual employees in non-essential industries were stood down," she said.
"There was quite a reduction in those sorts of roles."
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In their own business, Think Recruitment immediately stopped doing one of their core activities, which was drug testing and breathalysing workers in construction and manufacturing industries.
"We haven't done it since coronavirus hit," she said.
"We don't want our own employees to get coronavirus, so we need to look at how to do it safely and protect ourselves.
"Our priority is keeping people safe."
She predicted that, as restrictions ease and government incentives come to an end, that employees will start to flood the job market.
"Long-term, I think employers will find they'll get an influx of applications in September and October, and it will be more time-consuming to find the right staff because everyone will apply for everything, even if it's not appropriate," she said.
"In our industry, it will take a lot more effort to wade through the applications, because people won't be selective about the jobs. We'll be inundated."
She also thinks that cleanliness in the work environment will be a much bigger part of doing business, post-COVID.
"It still depends on size of workforce, but bigger employees need to be considerate of their workers
"Many employers are still not taking it that seriously.
"It's possible that mandatory cleaning procedures could be put in place."
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