Many people across the United States and the globe have made a career change over the last two years. Unfortunately, some were forced to change careers because of the COVID-19 pandemic, where they either lost their jobs or were forced with reduced pay. However, others have not lost their jobs but have taken this opportunity to find new work and try a different career path.
To learn more about what American workers are searching for regarding job and career-related queries, Elements Global Services recently analyzed search trend data from Google from March of 2020 to the present day. They also surveyed young workers from the Millennial and Gen Z generations to learn about their changing career paths.
When it comes to the top 25 career and job-related searches during the pandemic, Elements Global Services first broke down the searches into nine different categories.
The nine categories are as follows:
- Jobs that can be done remotely
- Jobs with a good work-life balance
- Jobs that involve helping others
- Jobs that are high paying
- Jobs for people that are introverts
- Jobs that involve a lot of traveling
- People searching for guidance on how to change careers
- Jobs for people who are retired
- Jobs for teenagers under the age of 16
From there, they analyzed that data both on the state level and on the national level. The complete analysis shows the top search terms for every state and the top searches for the entire country.
The top jobs and career-related search over the past 19 months were people looking for well-paying jobs. This may not come as a surprise as workers looking for more pay are generally the top reason people switch jobs and careers.
One of the more surprising takeaways from the analysis is the search terms related to teenagers searching for work. The reason behind this isn’t exactly clear. It could be because teenagers are more tech-savvy and more likely to search for jobs online. The other reason could be teens are trying to help their families who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and want to help contribute money to the family. Nevertheless, jobs that hire at 14, 15, and 16 all appeared within the top 15 searches during the pandemic.
Searches based around remote work and working from home were also well represented on the list. This isn’t a surprise, with many jobs shifting to remote work full time during the COVID-19 pandemic and interest from others looking to move to a full-time remote position. In addition, the survey of young workers found that almost 70% of those not currently working remotely have been thinking and searching for jobs that can be done remotely.
The rest of the top 25 list was composed of searches for introverts at work, jobs in the most in-demand, jobs for retiree workers, and advice on choosing a career or searching careers.
To see the full results from the analysis from Elements Global Services, check out the accompanying graphic or a link to the full results below.
