In the recent past, there have been several influencing factors that have served to create upheaval in the Australian job market. COVID-19 was one of the most influential factors; more specifically, the government’s response to COVID-19 helped to define whether various careers would remain viable or not in the presence of enforced lockdowns.
Furthermore, COVID-19 has helped to accelerate a couple of trends that were already underway before the virus became an issue. One of these trends was a global retail apocalypse that has definitely
affected Australia; there was already a broad trend towards closures of bricks-and-mortar stores as online shopping gained traction with consumers. In the aftermath of COVID-19, even more bricks-and-mortar stores have closed, serving to make the retail apocalypse even more pronounced.
Another important trend is the global push by employers to automate as many tasks as possible using automation technologies. This trend, too, has become more prominent recently as employers strategize on how to solve their latest crop of problems. When one is trying to avoid dealing with sick employees and struggling to remain profitable, automation technologies provide a number of tempting advantages over human workers.
These trends have rendered multiple career paths virtually unviable in the short term. It’s unknown whether they will remain so in the long term.
Training for a new career requires considerable resources; it usually demands a substantial investment of both time spent in training and money spent to pay for that training. In light of the considerable investments that must be made, individuals who are embarking on a new career or having to make a career change will want to give careful thought to which jobs are likeliest to be good prospects. Our research indicates that the following career paths have a good chance of remaining viable, despite the global economic downturn, the rise of automation and the other accompanying trends:
1. Mental Health Professionals
Before anyone had ever heard of COVID-19, there was already evidence to suggest that Australia was experiencing an undersupply of experienced mental health professionals in relationship to the demand for their services.
COVID-19 has brought with it a rise in anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. This has created increased demand for mental health professionals including psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health counsellors and mental health nurses. Human empathy is a requirement for this work, which means that it is highly resistant to successfully being automated.
2. Healthcare Workers and Aged Care Workers
The healthcare industry has always been one of Australia’s most resilient, and that remains true in the age of COVID-19. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals of all varieties are likely to remain in demand in the wake of COVID-19.
In particular, there are many options for
careers in aged care, including care manager, community support worker, geriatric nurse and Assistant in Nursing (AIN). Considering the ageing population and the increasing demand for aged care, these jobs are all likely to remain viable for the foreseeable future.
3. ICT, Data Science and Cybersecurity Professionals
The tech sector is still largely
thriving in the wake of COVID-19, and ICT professionals remain in strong demand. In particular,
ICT managers, data scientists and cybersecurity professionals are all in demand right now.
Online technologies were already advancing before COVID-19 became an issue. The adoption of online shopping hastened dramatically in response to COVID-19.
Unfortunately, along with increased usage of the internet came increasing amounts of cyber crime.
Cybersecurity professionals are the people who work at keeping the public safe from security breaches, hacking, identity theft and other sorts of theft online. There is massive demand at present for cybersecurity talent from employers in all sectors ranging from governments to finance to healthcare to business.
4. Early Childhood Educators
Education is in a state of upheaval in the wake of COVID-19, with some facets having been more dramatically affected than others. Higher education, in particular, has suffered as
university enrollments declined in the wake of the virus.
Some aspects of education can be automated. There are many automation technologies that have been successfully deployed in the education sector, and there has been a huge push to bring education online. As course content gets recorded and placed online, the result is a gradually declining amount of demand for human educators.
That said, there’s strong
evidence to suggest that traditional classroom education provided by human teachers is still the best method for early childhood education. Without direct human supervision, small children are unlikely to stay on track and actually learn what they need to know. There’s also likely to be a place for
special education teachers in the job market of the future.
Of course, these are not the only viable future career paths. However, these careers appear to offer some of the most promising opportunities for Australians considering the current challenges present in the job market.
