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Despite a COVID-induced economic downturn, real estate remained resilient, ultimately standing as one of the most in-demand jobs markets in Australia.
LinkedIn’s Jobs on the Rise report has outlined the key trends that redefined the Australian jobs market in 2020.
With the care economy dominating the market, along with digital transformation and remote work, transferable skills have also been in high demand across industries.
“Roles across construction, social media, marketing and technology don’t necessarily require direct experience or four-year degrees — meaning opportunities are open to a wide variety of backgrounds,” according to the report.
Relevant roles that have maintained demand include construction workers, customer service, professional and personal coaches, as well as real estate.
Jobs in property
The real estate sector market stood strong for the most part of 2020 on the back of low interest rates and government stimulus.
As the jobs landscape transformed, the demand for housing also changed. More people are seeking to move away from big cities to find more affordable housing, thus requiring the services of real estate professionals — even if it did mean working remotely.
Among the top titles in the real estate sector today are mortgage brokers, real estate specialists, new home sales specialists and real estate agents.
Meanwhile, the top in-demand skills, according to the report, include those within the disciplines mortgage lending, new home sales, residential real estate, investment properties and real estate transactions.
Across states, these skills are most in demand in the cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
Regaining confidence
While employment in Australia fell drastically in the beginning of the pandemic, particularly between March and May when it fell by 6.7 per cent, Australians are starting to regain confidence in the jobs market.
In fact, the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that employment rose by 50,000 in December, which was 784,000 higher than May.
Payroll jobs had also recovered to pre-COVID levels by early December 2020, according to Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS.
Ultimately, Australian are now responding with confidence and more job activity, embracing the shift in workplace trends.
According to LinkedIn, confidence among workers is at an all-time high since April, with a score of +29 on a scale of -100 to +100 on the LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Index. This is more than double than the level of confidence back in April (+12) and 10 points higher than in the second wave in July (+19).
People are most confident about their ability to find and keep a job (+38) and least confident about their finances (+24).
Greater Perth saw the most confident workers since July, while Greater Brisbane closed the gap between Q3 and Q4 to match Perth. Greater Sydney also had a big jump in confidence during the latter part of the year, the report stated.
Moving forward, LinkedIn expects 2021 to look different for various industries.
For instance, there is greater demand than supply in industries such as media and communications, arts and design, community and social services, education, administrative and sales.
On the other hand, demand is below perceived supply in industries such as accounting, program and project management, healthcare services, and finance.
“A lifelong learning mindset is crucial for professionals looking to develop themselves and adapt to the workforce of the future. Workers who are equipped with digital skills — even at a basic level — will have an edge in finding employment opportunities,” the report concluded.
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