Coronavirus causes sharp drop in travel recruitment
Travel firms are putting their recruitment plans on hold amid coronavirus fears.
Recruitment firm C&M says there was a drop in activity towards the end of February as the news of the virus spread.
The number of new vacancies and candidates suffered double digit falls from the previous month as well as compared to February 2019.
"That impact is certainly more pronounced now," said Barbara Kolosinska, director at C&M Travel Recruitment and C&M Executive Recruitment.
"A large number of firms are putting their plans for business travel on hold and this is having a direct impact on many companies in our industry. As a result of these continued worries, we thoroughly expect March’s data to show a significant drop in recruitment activity but we must hope that any impact remains short-term."
She said companies should look at using temporary placements to cope with market volatility.
"Although some companies are putting their permanent recruitment plans on hold for the time being, the industry is likely to experience a large degree of volatility over the next few weeks," said Kolosinska.
"Therefore, we would recommend they consider taking on temporary staff in order to accommodate any spikes in activity because this has proven to be an effective short-term remedy during previous global challenges."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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