Despite the troublesome unemployment numbers, many companies and workers are already starting to see a big benefit coming from this odd year, as you no longer need to to only search for work in the region or state where you live.
Rupa Mishra lives in Troy, Michigan. But her employer, Keybank, is in Cleveland.
"I’m a UX designer, so I work on digital design so mobile, desktop, responsive design," Mishra said. "Everything has been remote, so once the offer was made, I accepted. I had my laptop shipped over and instructions, and we did everything thru Zoom meetings."
John H. Chuang, founder and CEO of Aquent, has been placing talent in some of the country's most well-known companies for 35 years.
"We’ve seen many many economic cycles and many many recessions and recoveries. This one is a real interesting one because of what’s going on in the job market," Chuang said. "There used to be 200 labor markets in theUunited States. If you lived in San Diego, you probably didn’t get a job in Philadelphia. But today, that’s all changing, and it’s really one big labor market. So you have a lot more labor mobility, and a lot more liquidity in the labor market."
Chuang said many "knowledge-based jobs" have already transitioned to remote work only, but for those that haven't yet, be upfront with prospective employers if you desire to work remote only. Chuang says job seekers should no longer enter a city in the location setting on their favorite job site and instead enter words like "remote work" or "work from home" which will allow many to apply for jobs they maybe never thought possible.
For help landing a job, check out the listings at Aquent.com.