Increasing numbers are being impacted by redundancy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Image credit: Pxhere
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When Paul Smith was made redundant last week after 24 years in his job, he could almost see it coming.
The 49-year-old from Glasgow was working in printing for a local newspaper and had seen colleagues come and go, both before and during the pandemic.
Now, he is having to navigate what he describes as a “new world” of recruitment agencies, job interviews and social media, something he admits isn’t easy after working full time for more than two decades.
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“There was 15 of us, and it’s now five. So you’re seeing [people leave] and it just happened to be my time. You’ve got to accept it,” Paul told the Big Issue.
He isn’t letting unemployment get him down and is determined to find work, posting a message on Twitter asking for any help available finding a job. He has since had several job offers and an interview.
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After 24 years working in my job, today I was made redundant. I am a hardworking honest, reliable, trustworthy individual. I stay in Glasgow and have a clean driving licence If anyone can help me please get in touch. Any help would be much appreciated.
“I put that tweet up, I said I’m a loyal, trustworthy, hard-working man,” he added. “I reached out. At your weakest point, that’s when you find your strength.”
But Paul would be forgiven for not feeling quite so optimistic about the current job market.
New figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show GDP shrank 9.9 per cent last year, the largest decline in modern history.
With 2.6 million people expected to be unemployed in the UK by 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic and repeated lockdowns have hit the economy hard.
Responding to the latest ONS figures, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the economy had experienced a “serious shock” due to the crisis.
“While there are some positive signs of the economy’s resilience over the winter, we know that the current lockdown continues to have a significant impact on many people and businesses,” he said.
“That’s why my focus remains fixed on doing everything we can to protect jobs, businesses and livelihoods.
“At the budget, I will set out the next stage of our plan for jobs, and the support we’ll provide through the next phase of pandemic.”
Unemployment has risen to its highest level in five years, with 1.7 million Brits now jobless as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rock the jobs market and ruin lives.
Laura Hartley, a recruitment specialist who has run her own recruitment consultancy for 13 years, told the Big Issue that in the challenging post-pandemic job market, it was important candidates stood out from the crowd and highlighted what they could bring to the table.
“The current challenge is that for any one job you’re looking at hundreds of applications,” Hartley said.
“One of the things we do with our career coaching is we ask the candidate to look at something different, so it’s not a CV about their achievements and what they’ve done before, but about what they can bring to a company.”
Paul said he hoped going into interviews and being himself would help him secure a new role in the post-pandemic landscape. He is seeing a careers advisor and working with a recruitment firm who have helped him dust off his CV.
“It’s about going in and being open and honest and showing your weaknesses and your strengths,” he added.
“I’ve got a CV now and I’m getting into LinkedIn. I was on the phone to a careers advisor today for about an hour and she was just going through things with me and asking me lots of questions.
“There is a lot of help out there but you’ve just got to reach out and that’s what I’ve been saying, when life goes bad, you don’t go bad with it.”
Have you been affected by the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic? The Big Issue is committed to supporting its readers and find ways to help people stay in their jobs and in their homes through our Ride Out Recession Alliance. Send your stories and ideas to rora@bigissue.com to help us support those who need it most.
When most people think about the Big Issue, they think of vendors selling the Big Issue magazines on the streets – and we are immensely proud of this. In 2022 alone, we worked with 10% more vendors and these vendors earned £3.76 million in collective income. There is much more to the work we do at the Big Issue Group, our mission is to create innovative solutions through enterprise to unlock opportunity for the 14million people in the UK living in poverty.
