An ASSESSMENT of Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Job Seekers’ Usage of Social Media (SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth)

This paper primarily aligns with SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. In the past decades, recruitment methodologies have changed drastically with the globalization the Internet. Online job portals, e-portals for job seekers have become mainstream along with advertisements in Newspapers and Gazettes globally. The continuous effort of Human Resource departments to evolve with the ever-changing businesses and technologies has seen them using social network platforms for recruitment in the recent years. In a previous study, it is assessed that a dominating number of Bangladeshi job seekers are reliant on social media to search jobs and network with potential employers. With the recent COVID-19 health pandemic, employers across the world have adopted advertising on social media, video interviewing and remote working more than ever. Therefore, it is crucial and timely to assess impacts of the pandemic on job seekers’ social media usage in Bangladesh. The principal objective of this paper is to assess how the jobseekers’ behaviors and perceptions have changed towards social media in identifying employment opportunities during this pandemic. Additionally, this paper aims to provide recommendations to the Bangladeshi employers to enable them better utilize recruitment methodologies and tools based on the assessment. The Primary information for the assessment has been collected through structured and targeted online survey questionnaires from recent graduates of reputable Bangladeshi private universities. The sample size for this paper is 100. The secondary information has been collected through published research articles and textbooks. All quantitative data analysis is carried out using SPSS Statistics software. The result exhibits that jobseekers’ use of social media has increased during the pandemic by many folds. Finally, this paper also provides specific recommendations to employers to adapt to this changed perception.