Coronavirus creating influx of specialized job openings, economist with Bay Area-based Glassdoor says
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- The global response to novel coronavirus has government contractors and nonprofit groups scrambling to find specialists to deal with patients, public information, data analysis and even project management.
As the outbreak grows, listings on Glassdoor.com are growing to fill a wide range of coronavirus-related jobs.
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It's probably not surprising to see openings for registered nurses who can assist the CDC with airport screenings.
However, Glassdoor's economist did find other kinds of specialties in demand.
"I was actually surprised to see that the global public health response does mean more demand for workers like communications specialists or consultants who can help organizations craft the right public health response," said Daniel Zhao, a Glassdoor economist.
In that realm, there were multiple listings from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has committed up to $100 million to fund work to detect, isolate and treat COVID-19.
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One of the foundation's goals is to fund research for a vaccine and to protect at-risk residents of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia hard hit by previous epidemics.
"The labor market is very tight right now and so it would be hard to find specialists in any field right now," noted Glassdoor's Zhao. "That being said, I think that right now there's a lot of attention on the outbreak, and that will make it a little bit easier for organizations to find the right talent."
Some of the postings did indicate that the jobs have not yet been funded, which Glassdoor interprets as meaning some of the employers are thinking longer term, not knowing when the coronavirus situation will resolve itself and that they want to have plenty of resumes available to fill future jobs.
