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Sustaining Society; who is hiring?

The global response to coronavirus has had significant socio-economic ramifications. Whilst the UK government has pledged considerable sums towards supporting employment and boosting out-of-work benefits, it remains the case that thousands of employees have been made redundant or put on currently unpaid leave in the airline, tourism, retail, hospitality, education, and entertainment industries. This is leaving many people in difficult situations.

Here at Change Agents UK, our focus has always been on employment in the sustainability sector, but in these trying times we recognise that sustainability is a broad concept. Alongside maintaining health and wellbeing, people whose livelihoods have been lost will be focused on looking for suitable work opportunities in order to help support themselves and their families. There is also a clear need to maintain essential supplies and deliveries of food and other essentials during the crisis, and to provide and support the necessary infrastructure to allow as much work as possible to continue under lockdown. There are also a number of valuable volunteering opportunities supporting local communities, particularly those who are vulnerable. The work emerging as a result of some of the responses to coronavirus will directly relate to several of the Sustainable Development Goals:

Therefore, this week, we are using our blog to point any job seekers to employers that are hiring, albeit mainly for temporary roles.

Supermarkets

Due to the additional demand on food retailers, many supermarkets have stated that they are hiring warehouse workers, in-store staff, and delivery drivers. Tesco is hiring 20,000 temporary staff, Asda is hiring 5,000 temporary staff, Morrisons is hiring 3,500 new staff, Aldi is hiring 9,000 new staff, Co-op is hiring 5,000 new staff, and Lidl is hiring 2,500 more staff. Iceland is also hiring more delivery drivers. The links below will take you to the careers page for each retailer.

Other Retailers

Online-only retailers are also seeing increasing demand due to the closure of normal shops. Amazon is hiring normal delivery drivers and warehouse assistants, in addition to their usual office vacancies, and Ocado is hiring more delivery drivers, in addition to their graduate and engineering roles. Staff to fill warehouse and factory operative roles are also in demand.

Agriculture

With several thousand migrant workers unable to travel to the UK, farmers need extra seasonal labour to help with the harvest. Hops Labour Solutions is an agency through which you can find seasonal work in agriculture.

Transport and Logistics

Transport and logistics companies need drivers and warehouse assistants to support them with the new pressure on the supply chain. DHL has around 90 jobs advertised on its website, and Eddie Stobart has almost 50 jobs going around the UK (see links below). Moy Park, a leading food company based in Lincolnshire, also are advertising additional roles in agriculture and production operations at its site near Grantham. They have advised that people apply by emailing tempjobs@moypark.com

Delivery

Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat are all experiencing an increase in demand due to the closure of sit-in eating establishments. All riders are technically self-employed, so can be flexible in the hours they work, but this doesn’t necessarily guarantee work.

IT and Network Providers

The vast increase in working from home has raised the demand for, and use of, wifi and internet in the home. There are many hundreds of jobs being advertised by network provider companies such as Sky, Virgin Media , Talk Talk, Vodafone, and BT, potentially influenced by the new levels of home usage.

Online Lessons

Many students will be struggling with remote learning and parents are often juggling working from home with supporting education. Services such as Tutorful offer an online tutoring and classroom platform to enable suitable people to tutor remotely. Create and account with information on your expertise - please note you will need to provide ID and references and undergo DBS checks as required.

Volunteering opportunities

For those who don’t need to look for paid work, but are still searching for something to do, there are many opportunities to volunteer. The government is currently asking people to volunteer for the NHS, to help people who are having to fully self-isolate due to underlying health conditions. This can involve collecting supplies, helping people with transportation, or just having a chat.

Do-It is another source of volunteering opportunities, which allows you to search for volunteering positions that you can do from home, during the lock-down.

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