If you look at Houndsditch from a business perspective, building frontage types fall into two catgories of use, office entrances and businesses that serve local office workers. The road is lined with sandwich/coffee shops, restaurants and bars that rely heavily on local trade.
It remains to be seen just how many of these businesses will be making decisions about whether to continue to ride out the recession or maybe close for good along with the jobs they provided.
So will things ever return to how they were before? No one knows for sure as there is no precedent to inform a comparison. That said with new infection, hospitalisation and death rates falling, it seems that we are moving toward the end of the economic paralysis caused by Covid 19. So really it's going to be about when people return to the office and in what volumes.
The Bank Of England publish a lot of useful economic data and recently they produced some about home working. As it stands, it is estimated that 49% of employees are working from home at least one day a week, reducing to 34% in 2022. The most likely pattern they believe to emerge will be a 60:40 split between home and office work.
It is important to understand that these numbers are essentially very well informed guesses and are averaged out across all regions and all office based roles. I think the Bank of England's projection is a bit conservative, maybe I'm being bullish, but I take the view that we will see 70% of office workers back at the office for a minimum of 3 days a week.
For certain roles, a permanent office presence is essential. For example, lawyers and accountants on training contracts need office based supervision due to the complex nature of their work. Certain roles, such as Lloyds brokers will be missing face to face interaction with underwriters
so we will see a steady return to more fully occupied commercial areas as the summer unfolds.
Certain sectors however will be affected permanently and none more than retail. The names that we have lost from the High Street include TM Lewin, Oliver Sweeney and Debenhams. Admittedly these three brands will continue an online presence, but the jobs associated with the retail sites are going for good.
The point of this article is not to depress readers that are looking for work, but to make them think about the direction of their job search. The reality of the situation is that people might have to consider a wider range of roles for their next job. Everyone has skills and experience that are transferable, in that they are valued in a wide range of jobs. It is important to work out what these skills are and how and where they can be applied.
A good example of this are ex-serviceman, who make outstanding sales people, especially if they're field based. Why is this? The armed forces are about organisation, prioritisation and communication and these are just as critical in sales and many other roles.
So the key task for today is to look at your skills and experience and identify the sectors that they are applicable to. Someone, somewhere needs you.