For those people who have lost their jobs at this time, there is an opportunity to choose from a wide range of job offers, said the marketing director for the recruitment company WorkingDay, Māris Silinieks.He pointed out that last January the unemployment rate in Latvia was 7.4% and currently it is 6.4%. There are areas that are more affected by the pandemic, such as the hospitality sector, the area of entertainment and recreation.
“At the same time, there are areas that have experienced a huge boom where working hands are very lacking. These are different delivery services. Due to remote working and learning, there is high demand for information technology specialists. Of course, there needs to be reprofiling, but the number of job offers is huge. The State Employment Agency's home page contains 5,675 job offers. There's some to choose from. There are also vacancies for managers and highly skilled specialists. All levels,” said Silinieks.
Evita Mackeviča, head of the staff management consultancy company “Eiro Personāls”, stressed that employers' and workers' paths could cross through different channels. The expert pointed out that there is a migration of employees from one sector to another in the labour market, but this tends to be more in lower-level positions.
On the other hand, higher-level employees are in demand in all sectors, including those that have been severely affected by the pandemic.
“At a higher level, the hunt for talent continues. In addition, during the pandemic, the number of employees with an increase in compensation above €4,000 has increased. Specialists at this level are being approached, searched, selection companies are being attracted, and the demand is there,” Mackeviča said.
Demand is high for different levels of staff, particularly in areas where the pandemic time has come with a major push for growth. Jānis Grants, chairman of the board of delivery service DPD Latvija, said the company is actively addressing potential employees as the annual output increases significantly.
"99% [of staff] are returning to the original sector in which they have previously worked – tourism, catering. The end of the year has always been the hottest period for us. It's even hotter this year because of these additional restrictions. [..] We need to train these employees, invest. But we know that they will not stay with us for more than these three months, which are the hottest – November, December and January," said the head of DPD Latvia.
Meanwhile, at Bolt, both taxi drivers and couriers can find a job. Bolt representative in Latvia Raimonds Bērziņš said that people often choose “Bolt” as an additional job to earn or work during the period while there are fewer jobs in another sector.
He said that in the first wave of the pandemic, the company had hoped for a larger influx of new employees, yet it didn't happen. At the moment, interest in work in the company is increasing, but employees are still lacking, as demand for services is rising.
